Microcool Northpole Chipset Cooling Kit - Conclusion page 2
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Microcool Northpole Chipset Cooling Kit
The Fan
The fan used on the Northpole is a 40mm x 40mm Sunon fan. This fan pushes quite an abundant amount of air without producing too much noise. It was a wise choice for the fan as it makes it safe to plug into motherboard fan connectors.
Testing
Tests are done in a closed room environment with ambient temperature maintained at 22.3°C. A temperature probe was attached to the Northbridge for temperature measurements. A thin coat of Arctic Silver 3 was applied on the Northbridge to test the Northpole.
Test System:
AMD Athlon XP2100+
Asus A7N8X-X
2x 256mb Kinston HyperX PC3000
Maxtor 30gb 7200rpm ATA133
ATI Radeon 9500
Swiftech MCX462+ w/ Thermaltake Smartfan 2 on HIGH
Test Fans:
40mm x 40mm Sunon provided by Microcool.
Test Burn-Ins:
Results
Given the results, it does not seem like there is such a big improvement in performance. There are a few factors that must be taken into consideration. The first one is that the test was done on a open air test bench and not inside a case. If conducted inside a case, a more drastic improvement would be seen. The second one would be that the high airflow from the Smartfan 2 helped cool the stock heatsink. This would be true to all aircooling systems as the air from the CPU fan flows to cool the Northbridge. Even warm air can help a little. Despite these two conditions, the Northpole was still able to show a difference in performance. Although only 1°C lower than the stock, a good degree lower can help stability.
Concerns
There was one main concern I had with the Northpole. The flange on the black aluminum shroud might stick out too much and come in contact with the CPU heatsink. It was fine with me when I used the MCX462+, but it might cause some compatibility issues with other heatsinks or larger fans. Other than the minor scratches on the base of the copper block, I had no troubles with the Northpole. Installation and preparation was a breeze.
Conclusions
Microcool aimed at producing a high performance chipset cooler for overclockers to squeeze out the last bit from their Northbridge and they have done just that. The Northpole is excellent in performance, is built with quality, and is very easy to install. The black shroud makes the unit look very sexy, especially when mounted on a black motherboard. At a first look of a price of $34.95 over at Sidewindercomputers.com, it may seem quite expensive. But bare in mind that many chipset coolers out cost around $19.99 and they do not come with MOSFET or PLL heatsinks. So the price tag of $34.95 is not quite expensive at all. I would certainly recommend this to everyone, especially overclockers who use watercooling or vapochill as their cooling setup. As mentioned before, the CPU fan can help cool the Northbridge a little, but if the CPU was watercooled, there wouldn't be any CPU fans to help. That is where the Northpole comes in handy.
Pros/Cons
Pros
Cons
Scratched copper base
Nylon washer a little too big
Aluminum shroud flange might be an obstruction
Slightly pricey for a chipset cooler
Rating: 9/10
Even with a few faults we think the Microcool Northpole Chipset Cooler is a great choice for the true cooling enthusiast. Heck, it's not far from your ONLY choice. But right now, if your not looking to water cool your chipset, but still feel the need to keep that chipset at it's coolest, you'll definitely want to pickup the Microcool Northpole.
We'd like to thank you for joining us today for the Microcool Northpole Chipset cooling kit. If you're looking to pick one of these up, head on over to Sidewinder Computers for this and many other cooling/PC mod products. We have worked with them since OCA was built and we can vouch that they have some of the very best service and prices you can get. Want to discuss this in the OCA Forums?
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