Evercool PCAC - Test Setup
(Page 4 of 9 )
Testing a unit like this brings up a few questions. What are the desired effects of using the PCAC? What are our limitations? What is the best way to observe the performance of this unit under "typical" conditions? I say typical in quotes because the word leaves a lot of room for interpretation. But in this case the target market for this product is most likely to be an enthusiast user looking to shave another few degrees off their temps, or a user suffering from little to no room for additional fans.
Obviously, the desired effect of using the PCAC is to reduce our case temperatures. This may be an indirect method of reducing CPU temperature as well, but the unit is by definition a case cooler. Due to the variable nature of CPU cooling, looking at CPU temps will not be an accurate indication of performance without collecting massive amounts of data. In order to gauge the effects of the PCAC on case temperatures I am using the extremely popular Chieftec Dragon mid-tower case depicted in previous pictures.
By running a common configuration of fans at different speed settings on the PCAC, we can observe temperature changes and determine the effects on airflow through the case.
Here is a list of the hardware I will be running:
- AMD Athlon Thunderbird 1.4GHz (10.5x133)
- Thermaltake SLK-800 HSF w/generic Thermaltake thermal paste
- 256MB Kingston HyperX PC3000
- EPoX EP-8RDA3+
- 350W Super-Flower (TTGI) dual-fan PSU
- Hercules/Guillemot Kyro II 3D Prophet 4500
- 40GB Maxtor 7200RPM HDD
- 12x DVD-ROM
- 2 x 80mm exhaust (23CFM ea.)
- 1 x 80mm intake (Smart Fan II @ ~35CFM)
In order to create stress on the system I am using stresslinux, a bootable CD running GNU/Linux which lets you run a range of benchmarking and monitoring tools. I used a combination of the following utilities to generate load on the system:
- cpuburn (burnK7) - Heavily loads CPU with small, optimized code
- stress - Highly configurable utility to customize load on CPU, memory, I/O, or disk
Next: Temperatures >>
More PC Cooling Articles
More By Tekime
| Recommended by Dev Hardware |
|---|
|
