Introduction

The Athlon XP lives on, and heatsink manufactures continue to improve their heatsink & fan products to offer better performance at interesting price points. Today we take a closer look at 3 Athlon XP coolers from Thermalright, Spire and Scythe.

All heatsinks make use of heat pipes in their design as this technology allows for easy removal of heat from one point to another; The contestants today:

Thermalright SI-97

Spire Verticool

Scythe Kamakiri


Reference heatsinks

Besides comparing each heatsink’s performance against the others, I also include 2 reference heatsinks which have proven popular in the past.




The Thermalright SP-97 is an all copper heat pipe equipped heavy heatsink which requires motherboard removal and uses 4 mounting holes around the socket for installation. The SP-97 comes with fan clips for 80 and 92mm fans which gives you the choice of fan and performance/noise ratio.




The Zalman CNPS7000Cu is very popular due to its excellent balance of performance and noise; for Socket A installation this heatsink requires motherboard removal as it also uses the 4 mounting holes around the socket. The heatsink comes with a mini rheobus which allows you to change the speed of the included 92mm fan; the rheobus alters the fan’s voltage between 11.9v and 5v.


Test Setup and Test Methodology

JMke's Test Setup
CPU	Athlon XP-M “Barton” 2500+ @ 1900Mhz -1.86v (~90W)
Mainboard	Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe
Memory	1 * 256Mb OCZ PC3700
Video	ATI R9000 Passive Cooling

Arctic Silver kindly send us their “Lumière” thermal testing compound which has the same color and characteristics as Ceramique, but it only needs a burn in period of 30min (compared to several days with convential thermal paste)

The CPU stressed with K7 Burn, this application will raise temperature higher then any other stress program I know, 4-5°C difference with Prime95 or 3DMark2001SE loops.

Noise level of each fan was recorded with SmartSensor SL4001A, the sensor was placed ~35cm away from the fan. The lowest dBA reading in the test room was 33 dBA, if a fan noise reading is 33 dBA then it means that it is really, really silent :)


Fans used

Each heatsink was tested with the supplied fan (if applicable) and also with a selection of high and low output fans. Some fans were tested at 12v/7v setting, defined with High/Low in the performance charts. The Zalman was used with its own rheobus which puts the “Low” setting at 5v.


Vantec Tornado fans provided by Vantec Taiwan

With all the details explained it is time to meet our first contestant ->

Thermalright SI-97:
Sample supplier: Thermalright

The Thermalright SI-97 builds on the same design layout of the XP-90 and XP-120 which are meant for P4 and A64. The small base is made of copper and has 4 heat pipes leading in a U form up into a series of aluminum fins.

Can be installed on: Socket A/462

Heatsink specifications:
- Length: 116mm
- Width: 96mm
- Height: 75mm
- Material: Copper and Aluminum
- Weight: 280gr (no fan)

Included Fan: None (Thermalright recommends Panaflo FBL09A12M 92mm fan)

Supports Fan: 80/92mm

Product pictures

Thermalright’s product development is in a very mature stage, the heatsink features excellent finishing with a very smooth base and no sharp edges anywhere to be spotted



Fan mounting is done through to metal clips which hook unto the lower lip of the fan; so you need to use fan which does not feature closed corners. 2 small strips of plastic are sandwiched between heatsink and fan to reduce noise from vibration.




Installation

Thermalright includes a copper shim to protect the fragile Athlon XP core, the base of the SI-97 is not that big and without the shim is very likely to tilt during installation. In the pictures below you see the AXP without and with the shim. Do note that in these pictures I failed to remove the protective plastic film on the shim; however before final installation it was removed.



Although the SI-97 installation doesn’t necessarily require motherboard removal, it will most likely be needed to access the small clip which needs to be placed in the middle of the base and over the 3 lips at each side of the socket. The heatsink is fairly high and clears all mosfets and northbridge heatsink.





Performance versus Thermalright SP-97

The SI-97’s toughest competition comes from Thermalright’s own SP-97 which offers excellent performance be it with high output or silent fans. Let’s see how the SI-97 measures up:



The SI-97 trails the SP-97 when high output fans are used by a mere 1-3°C, however when using the extremely silent Papst fan at 7v the SI-97 takes the lead.

Spire VertiCool SPA49B0:
Sample supplier: Spire

Spire jumps on the heat pipe bandwagon with their VertiCool AXP cooler, 2 heat pipes loop through a copper base and dissipate heat through a series of aluminum fins

Can be installed on: Socket A/462

Heatsink specifications:
- Length: 80mm
- Width: 64mm
- Height: 90mm
- Material: Copper base / Aluminum fins
- Weight: 333gr (with fan)

Included Fan: 80mm fan rated 2300rpm @ 25dBA, own dBA reading @ ~35cm: 41.8dBA

Supports Fan: 80mm

Product pictures

The VertiCool comes attractively packaged; the unit itself is build for functionality yet pleasing for the eye. The finishing is excellent overall, even the wires of the fan come sleeved!



The copper base is very smooth; no ridges could be detected by passing over it with my fingernail. A series of fins is soldered onto the base to increase heat dissipation




Installation

Installation is very easy, no motherboard removal is required and the unit can be firmly attached by simply pushing the clip over the 3-lips of the socket at each side, completely tool-less. However on the Asus A7N8X-E I ran into a compatibility problem with the capacitors close to the socket, with fan installed using the 4 mounting screws, it prevented the heatsink from sitting flat on the CPU core.



This translated in too high temperatures and eventually an unstable system. By removing the bottom 2 screws which hold the fan it its place it allowed for enough “play” to allow the heatsink to sit flat and the temperature obtained were on par with what was expected.



Performance versus Zalman CNPS7000Cu

Spire’s VertiCool comes out head to head with Zalman’s offering as both are aimed at the same market segment. Let’s see how it does:



With the default fan the VertiCool is trailing the Zalman @ low speed with 11°C!, luckily switching to a higher output fan brings the performance on par with the Zalman @ High, however the noise generated is considerably higher.

Pairing the VertiCool up with the extreme performance Vantec Tornado gives excellent performance, although you don’t want to be sitting next it.

Scythe Kamakiri:
Sample supplier: Bacata

Scythe has been very busy this last year, they have produced a wide range of high performance heatsinks, their latest we have here today, the Kamakiri (which stands for "Scythe Sword/Slash") features 6 heat pipes joined at middle and with an unique design aspect as you will see from the product pictures below. This unit fits on ALL recent CPU sockets out there, quite impressive and definitely a plus.

Can be installed on AMD Socket 462/754/939/940 and Intel Socket 370/478/775

Heatsink specifications:
- Length: 72mm
- Width: 99.5mm
- Height: 110mm
- Material: Copper base / Aluminum fins
- Weight: 665gr (with fan)

Included Fan: 80mm rated 1300-4600rpm @ 15-46dBA; own dBA reading at ~35cm: 33-62.2dBA

Rheobus included which mounts in a spare PCI slot

Supports Fan: 80mm

Product pictures

The Kamakiri features 6 heat pipes in a U form which are joined at the base; a series of aluminum waved fins are responsible for heat dissipation. In the middle of the heatsink you will find an 80mm fan which pulls in cool air and blows hot air out. The fan can be removed by removing the plastic cage. At the bottom of the fan Scythe glued a small piece of foam to reduce fan vibration.



Although the heatsink consist almost entirely of aluminum, they decided to screw a nickel plated copper plate in the bottom to improve heat transfer, the finishing is excellent.



Installation

Installation on Socket A requires the use of a separate bracket which is placed over the socket and hooks over the 3 clips at each side. Motherboard removal is not needed and you only need a Philips screwdriver and a bit of patience. The Kamakiri unit is placed in the center of the bracket and screws at each side lift up until everything is fitted tight. I did notice a small anomaly where the bracket is pushing up the socket lever but this did not pose any problems during further usage.



Performance versus Zalman CNPS7000Cu

Let’s see how it performs:



Using the default fan the High and Low settings cause a temperature fluctuation of 14°C, considering the fact that the dBA rating at "Low" setting is lower than ambient it is quite striking to still see the temperature below alarming values.

Using the Delta fan the noise is reduced quite a bit when compared to the default fan @ High, however the performance is trailing with the even quieter Zalman unit.

Results: Temperature & Noise graphs

Our first result graph is simple, sorted by the obtained maximum temperature under load:



Looking at the results above it is clear that the Vantec Tornado fans will turn almost any heatsink into a true “performer”. Switching to the slightly slower spinning Delta fan puts the Thermalright units in the lead; the VertiCool and Kamakiri perform almost the same here.

In the silent corner it’s the SI-97 and SP-97 which reign supreme, as long as the Papst fan is kept running at 12V, at 7V it does not produce enough airflow to deliver competitive results. The VertiCool unit with its default fan is running near 70°C under load, closely followed by the Kamakiri @ Low.

With the wide variety in fans and noise produced I decided to create a second graph which combines the obtained noise readings at ~35cm with the temperatures under load.

The Lower the combination of the two, the better:



People looking for a silent solution should not opt to combine their heatsink with a Vantec Tornado, but you don’t need me to tell you that. When we look at the middle of the graph it is clear that most of extremely silent fan/heatsink combo’s do not give the best ratio.

At the head of the pack we have the old and trusty Zalman CNPS7000Cu unit which offers an excellent performance/noise ratio, only bested by the SP-97. The new SI-97 is not far off either. Scythe’s Kamakiri delivers impressive numbers.


Conclusion

Let’s take a look at the resale prices of these units, using Froogle as a guideline I came upon these prices

Zalman CNPS7000Cu - $30
Thermalright SI-97 - $40
Thermalright SP-97 - $50
Spire VertiCool - $50
Scythe Kamakiri - $50

The exact price will depend on availability near where you live, the SP-97 for example still costs quite a lot here in Belgium. The Scythe, Spire and Zalman have the price advantage with the inclusion a default fan.

Depending on your budget and needs you should be able to find a heatsink which fits your PC best. None of the heatsinks tested today are bad and when combined with a high output fan they will give you enough cooling power overhead to experiment with overclocking, without worrying about overheating.

Thank you for reading and until next time!

Questions/Comments: Forum thread