Aerocool Extreme AXP-P4 HSF Review
CPU Cooling by jmke @ 2004-06-17
This heatsink will fit your AMD XP or Intel setup and sports a flashy LED fan, does the Extreme name translate into extreme performance? Read on to find out.
Review
Introduction & Specs
ITC Multimedia send us over some interesting new products from Aerocool. Their first product is a heatsink we are reviewing today, it has been tagged with the catchy “Extreme” name and it fits both Socket A and Socket 478 (Intel) systems.
Let’s see if it can live up to its given name.
By default the heatsink comes installed with Socket A mounting gear, a straight forward 3-pin clip.
In the box
You’ll find everything needed to install this heatsink in the box:
The Aerocool Extreme heatsink (of course)
Mounting gear for AMD and Intel
A bag of screws and Thermal paste
A very descriptive manual
Am I leaving out something? Ah yes... the fan!
Size: 80mm
Speed: 2600rpm
Air moved: 34cfm
Noise produced: 30dBA
This HSF scores high in the looks department thanks to the flashy look 80mm LED fan, a small led is inserted at each corner of the fan’s outer ring.
The blades are colored differently to further make this fan stand out:
Let’s take a closer look at the heatsink and see how it’s installed ->
Let’s see if it can live up to its given name.
By default the heatsink comes installed with Socket A mounting gear, a straight forward 3-pin clip.
In the box
You’ll find everything needed to install this heatsink in the box:
Am I leaving out something? Ah yes... the fan!
This HSF scores high in the looks department thanks to the flashy look 80mm LED fan, a small led is inserted at each corner of the fan’s outer ring.
The blades are colored differently to further make this fan stand out:
Let’s take a closer look at the heatsink and see how it’s installed ->
Heatsink & Install
Heatsink close-up
The “Extreme” is made entirely out of copper:
Aerocool chose to solder small fins onto the copper base; this will result in lower heat transfer when compared to heatsinks with skived fins.
The base is very smooth, only a very small number of inconsistencies were spotted, lapping this heatsink will not bring much improvement as Aerocool did already a good job here:
Installation
The AMD installation is very easy as it uses a 3-pin clip like many others. The P4 method, however, is quite different.
You’ll need a set of pliers to remove the AMD clip, and then attach the 2 Intel clips which use the default Intel bracket to secure the heatsink in its place, here’s how it looks after the transformation
Pretty ordinary looking? Take another look:
The clips are installed ON the fan instead of on the heatsink, this means that you have to place the heatsink on the CPU and then align the fan with the clips over the heatsink, and apply pressure evenly on all 4 corners. As this heatsink is rather small it will start sliding around if you don’t do things patiently. I would have preferred to see the clips attached to the heatsink.
Now let’s find out if it can cool an overclocked XP2200+ sufficiently ->
The “Extreme” is made entirely out of copper:
Aerocool chose to solder small fins onto the copper base; this will result in lower heat transfer when compared to heatsinks with skived fins.
The base is very smooth, only a very small number of inconsistencies were spotted, lapping this heatsink will not bring much improvement as Aerocool did already a good job here:
Installation
The AMD installation is very easy as it uses a 3-pin clip like many others. The P4 method, however, is quite different.
You’ll need a set of pliers to remove the AMD clip, and then attach the 2 Intel clips which use the default Intel bracket to secure the heatsink in its place, here’s how it looks after the transformation
Pretty ordinary looking? Take another look:
The clips are installed ON the fan instead of on the heatsink, this means that you have to place the heatsink on the CPU and then align the fan with the clips over the heatsink, and apply pressure evenly on all 4 corners. As this heatsink is rather small it will start sliding around if you don’t do things patiently. I would have preferred to see the clips attached to the heatsink.
Now let’s find out if it can cool an overclocked XP2200+ sufficiently ->
Test Results & Conclusion
Test setup
The Aerocool Extreme is aimed at the budget minded enthusiast out there, so we decided to put it up against Evercool’s CUF-715CA copper heatsink which uses a 70mm fan. We took a closer look at the CUF-715CA back in December 2003.
Those are quite crispy temperatures we see here; with a room temperature of 25°C both heatsinks are unable to keep this overclocked Athlon XP below the 60°C. The small difference in results can be mainly contributed to the different fan size; the smaller Evercool fan pushes less hot air away.
Evercool Fan pushes 28cfm versus 34cfm for the Aerocool, noise-wise both are rated at 30dba, although I must admit that the 80mm fan makes a less whiney noise.
Conclusion
For a product which has a small text on the package which reads “Suitable for Xtreme Overclocking Solutions” it is quite disappointing to see such high temperatures during testing.
At a price of ~$27 it falls well into the budget category, and although its performance is not on par with the higher ranking heatsinks, it does have the advantage over the standard AMD heatsinks thanks to the 80mm fan which cuts down on noise quite a lot. As an nice extra you’ll be tempted to install a window in your case panel, if you haven’t already, as this fan lights up the surrounding area!
I would like to thank David from ITC Multimedia and Tony from Aerocool for providing us with the review unit.
Questions/Comments: forum thread
JMke's AMD Test Setup | |
| CPU | AMD Athlon XP 2200+ @ 2025Mhz - 1.8v |
| Mainboard | Abit KX7 |
| Cooling | * Aerocool Extreme * Evercool CUF-715CA |
| Memory | 1 * 256Mb PC3200 Corsair |
| Video | nVidia Geforce DDR |
The Aerocool Extreme is aimed at the budget minded enthusiast out there, so we decided to put it up against Evercool’s CUF-715CA copper heatsink which uses a 70mm fan. We took a closer look at the CUF-715CA back in December 2003.
Those are quite crispy temperatures we see here; with a room temperature of 25°C both heatsinks are unable to keep this overclocked Athlon XP below the 60°C. The small difference in results can be mainly contributed to the different fan size; the smaller Evercool fan pushes less hot air away.
Evercool Fan pushes 28cfm versus 34cfm for the Aerocool, noise-wise both are rated at 30dba, although I must admit that the 80mm fan makes a less whiney noise.
Conclusion
For a product which has a small text on the package which reads “Suitable for Xtreme Overclocking Solutions” it is quite disappointing to see such high temperatures during testing.
At a price of ~$27 it falls well into the budget category, and although its performance is not on par with the higher ranking heatsinks, it does have the advantage over the standard AMD heatsinks thanks to the 80mm fan which cuts down on noise quite a lot. As an nice extra you’ll be tempted to install a window in your case panel, if you haven’t already, as this fan lights up the surrounding area!
I would like to thank David from ITC Multimedia and Tony from Aerocool for providing us with the review unit.
Questions/Comments: forum thread