All test results were performed in an open air environment (Tech Station) with an ambient temperature of 72° Fahrenheit (22c). For the purpose of this review we will compare the Frio to the stock Intel cooler with a copper base. This should give the potential buyer a good idea of the cooling benefits the Frio provides over a stock setup. Innovation Cooling Diamond thermal paste was used on both coolers, our favorite. We will attempt a solid 1 GHz overclock from the stock 3.06 GHz speed of the i3 540. Idle temps were recorded after 30 minutes, and load temps were recorded after a 20 pass run of LinX stress test. Each test was run using a single fan configuration, and then a dual fan push/pull configuration. Fans were run at highest speed to show maximum cooling potential. We used RealTemp 3.40 to monitor the temperatures, and the highest reading from all cores was used for the results.
The following components were used in the test bed:
- Gigabyte GA-H55M-UD2H
- G.Skill 2X2 Gb Trident DDR3-2000
- PC Power and Cooling 750 Watt PSU
- Intel i3 540 CPU
- WD 500 Gb Sata HDD
- Lite-On Sata DVDRW
The testing began at stock 3.06 GHz cpu speed at the default 1.137 vCore.
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As you can see by the above results, the improvement over stock cooling is tremendous. As we have found with most coolers offering a push/pull option, the results vary only slightly when adding the second fan. These results alone would justify upgrading to the Frio cooler even if you do not plan on overclocking. Simply upgrading to this cooler on a system that will run at stock speeds will increase the life of your CPU based on the the cooling performance.
As mentioned at the beginning of this review, Thermaltake advertises “Designed for Overclocking” when describing the Frio. So, lets see how well it stands up when we start adding some speed and voltage to the CPU!
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