Setup
As the Superleggera is supplied with no fans, we were going to test its passive ability with the pump. Unfortunately, when overclocked, the system crashed due to high temperatures sadly. We opted for a single 120mmx38mm San Ace 9G1212H1011 fan that we have used on our previous setup of testing coolers. We will use the same settings and ambient used in the previous AM3 review shootout to compare against the other top coolers. We opted to skip the stock CPU temps as one would only buy such a cooler for aggressive overclocks and serious cooling ability, thus only an overclocked system was used.
Load testing gives the real indication of performance levels. For this we used OCCT and set each test to run for 30 minutes. The maximum temperature was taken from CPUID Monitor. We also took into account RPM levels of the fan. We tested the fan on the cooler for idle and load at its lowest and highest RPM to see the difference in cooling performance (using a fan controller).
Idle temperatures were recorded after an OCCT run had finished. We allowed a ‘cooling off period’ of 15 minutes for the idle test. The minimum temperature was recorded from CPUID Monitor.
The Phenom II 705e chip was not unlocked as doing so would prevent us from monitoring temperatures within the Windows environment.
Cool & Quiet was disabled in the BIOS as well as any other energy saving features. OCZ Freeze was the thermal interface material of choice.
Test System
- AMD Phenom II X3 705e @ OC 4.0Ghz w/ 1.5v
- Gigabyte GA-MA790FXT-UD5P
- Sapphire HD 4670 512MB Ultimate
- 2GB Super Talent Project X @ 1600Mhz 7-6-6-18
- Intel X25-M Gen2 80GB
- 800W Fractal Design Newton R2
- Windows 7 Ultimate 64Bit
Results
Idle
Load
Analysis
We were rather worried before testing (not about dying!) given a price tag of 99 EURO, however after seeing the results on an overclocked system, the new revamp of the PowerBooster has done a great job. In the all important load testing, we see the cooler beat the Venomous X from Thermalright by 3°C using the single fan on it”s highest RPM, and 4°C better off on a low RPM. When we compare the results to our cooling king from our previous review, the Noctua NH-D14 lags behind the cooler using the single San Ace fan on full throttle by 2°C. Even when adding a second 140mm fan in the middle of the D14, it’s still 1°C behind.
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