Some things in general....

A couple of months ago I tested some Athlon 64 heatsinks over here. Some big names like Thermalright were mentioned, but at least one player was missing: Swiftech!



We received the MCX6400-V™ heatsink and we put it to the test right away. But before we start, let me go to the fridge and to get some ice cubes to put in my coke. Belgium is a strange country, last week we were almost drowning in rain, today the sun is shining and it is 27°C outside. Nice weather. But not when you have several computers running in your room. That's why you'll see some high temperatures in the tests.

Enough chit-chat, time to present you today’s contestants:

MCX6400-V™ vs. SLK948-U vs. Ajigo MF043-044A (boxed cooler).

Both the SLK948-U as the Ajigo MF043-044A were presented in this [M]ad review, so they don't need an introduction . Our newcomer however hasn't been introduced to our readers yet, se here we go:

CNC machined, C110 copper base, flatness better than 0.0003", micro surface finish 8 or better.

405 Helicoid Pins made of High Thermal Conductivity Aluminium Alloy, press fitted in the base.

Weight: 26.4 oz (750 g)

More info can be found here...

As in most of my articles, I tend to mention the content from the package. This time I found:

Heat sink

Two spring loaded screw assemblies

Two nylon spacers

Four 80 mm fan straight brackets

Four snap-rivets (for fan installation)

Thermal grease - Arctic Alumina



The brackets for 92 mm fans are not included by default but can be included as an extra option. Swiftech’s in-house testing results concluded that this heatsink performs better with 80mm fans anyway!

The MCX6400-V™ is compatible with 80 and 92mm fans. However, comparative test data shows that 80mm fans perform in general better with this heatsink, and at lower noise levels. Nonetheless, 92mm fan brackets are also available as an option. The MCX6400-V™ ships without a fan in order to allow users to customize the product to their application.

Let's take a look at the heatsink itself. The base finishing is simply perfect-a-mundo. Really, this sink has a mirror finish, it is also is a little bit bigger compared to his Socket A brother the MCX462-V (reviewed here).


Mirror finished base, click for bigger picture:






The MCX6400-V compared to his Socket A brother MCX462-V:




It looks good, but how will it perform... let's find out >>

Installation

Besides the perfect finishing, another good thing is installation. The SLK948-U requires a custom pack plate. This means you'll have to remove the motherboard out of your case, to get to the backside of it.

Not so with the Swiftech MCX6400-V, all you need to do is remove the top part from the retention bracket. Then place the heatsink on the CPU, put the screws with the springs through the holes and tighten them. Piece of cake!





Some people had troubles with the helicoid pins at the outer edge of the heatsink breaking off, but I didn't experience any such problems during (de)installation. Just remember to handle this heatsink with proper care.


Let's heat up the sinks !

Piotke's Test Setup
CPU	AMD Athlon 64 3000+
Mainboard	Shuttle AN50R
Cooling	MCX6400 & Boxed cooler & SLK948U

the tests were run on system outside the case

thermal grease was some no-name white stuff

Three different 80mm fans were combined with the 3rd party heatsinks:

Low noise/rpm:

SANYO 80mm 109P0812M701

Airflow: 20.13 CFM

Noise: 21 dBa

Nominal speed: 2000rpm

80x80x15mm


Medium noise/rpm:

Delta 80mm AFB0812SH

Airflow: 46 CFM

Noise: 40dBa

Nominal speed: 4000rpm

80x80x25mm


High noise/rpm:

Delta 80mm FFB0812EHE

Airflow: 80.16 CFM

Noise: 52.5 dBa

Nominal speed: 5700rpm

80x80x38mm

As the boxed cooler was designed for 72 mm fans, I didn't change that one.

A64 3000+ @ 2000 Mhz @ 1.45 Vcore

First I tested these heatsinks, by using the default speed and voltage from my A64.

Once again, keep in mind that ambient temperature was about 30°.

The sound level from the boxed cooler can be compared with the 80 mm fan with medium fan speed.



With a low rpm fan, the SLK948U has a slight advantage compared to the MXC6400-V. But we can see following trend: The more powerful fan you use, the better the MCX starts performing. The difference is small, and if I would have used only one fan, there would be no clear winner. But by using three different types of fans, you can see a linear evolution....


A64 3000+ @ 2450 Mhz @ 1.7 Vcore



Now we cranked up the heat output from the CPU. Here the MCX starts trailing the competition, I installed the heatsink about three times, but it still gave me the same result. I noticed that the base was really hot, but the heat didn't seem to transfer to the pins fast enough dissipation.

The boxed cooler wasn't able to keep the CPU below 70°C, the predefined shutdown temperature I set in the bios.

Temperatures are always nice, but what does this mean in overclocking terms... I overclocked my A64 as far as possible, with both the heatsinks. The medium rpm fan was used.



20Mhz difference that is 0.8%, the temperature difference is ~11% however, the big copper base of the Swiftech gives you quite benefit when searching the limits of your CPU’s overclocked speed. The performance difference with the current top A64 cooler is very small!

Time for the conclusion ->

Conclusion:

Swiftech has brought their Flower Power heatsink to Athlon 64 platform, and with it they have once again proven that temperatures aren’t everything, thanks to the big copper base of the MCX6400-V it allows for overclocking almost on par with the best out there.

Temperature wise it trails Thermalright’s offering with 1-6°C when using different fans, combining this heatsink with a high output fan will increase the performance considerably, equaling the performance of water-cooling at the cost of high noise.

But don’t worry, even with silent fans this heatsink will be able to keep your CPU from crashing when the temperature out there is rising.

This heatsink can be bought at swiftnets.com for about 55 $ (~ € 50).


PRO
High performance
Looks fancy
No motherboard removal required


CON
High cost
No 92 mm fan bracket included by default
Heavy

We would like to thank Gabe and Michelle from Swiftech for providing the review unit!



/piotke out

Questions/Comments: forum thread