Review

ExtremeTech, Aug. 30, 2007
Powerful Peltier Cooling--Monsoon II Lite

By Jason Cross

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Cooling Performance

We set up the Monsoon II Lite in a high-end system with the following components.

Component		Make/Model
Processor		Intel Core 2 Quad QX6800 @ 2.93GHz
Motherboard and chipset		Intel D975 XBX (Intel 975X)
Memory		2 x 1GB DDR2 800 (5-5-5-12)
Hard drive		Seagate 7200.9 160GB SATA Drive
Optical drive		ATAPI DVD-ROM Drive
Graphics		PNY GeForce 8800 GTX
Audio		Sound Blaster X-Fi
Operating system		Windows XP SP2

This high-end quad-core CPU can get pretty hot under high load, but also overclocks very nicely if you have good RAM and can keep the temperatures down. We'll use four instances of Prime95 to make the CPU really sweat, and then measure the performance of Vigor Gaming's cooler compared with the stock Intel unit.

With each of the two coolers, we take temperature measurements at three times, using two different tools. One is the Intel Desktop Utilities, which unfortunately on many modern boards does not divulge the actual CPU temperature, but rather a "Thermal Margin." This is how many degrees (Celsius) before the CPU reaches its maximum rated temp and will likely start throttling down to avoid permanent damage. We'll also use the Intel Thermal Analysis Tool (TAT) to get direct temperature readings, averaging the core temperatures to get a whole CPU temperature. We measure the temperature at idle, then after running four instances of Prime 95 for 5 minutes, and finally after 15 minutes. This last measurement is about as hot as you can get a CPU.

Test		Monsoon II Lite @ 2.93GHz	Monsoon II Lite @ 3.5GHz	Stock Intel Cooler @ 2.93GHz
Thermal margin -- idle		56º	53º	30º
Thermal margin - 5 minutes		326º	22º	5º
Thermal margin - 15 minutes		26º	18º	0º
CPU Temp - idle		42º	44º	70º
CPU Temp - 5 minutes		67º	70º	86º
CPU Temp - 15 minutes		69º	77º	86º

Remember that a higher number for the Thermal Margin reading is better. The CPU temperature reported by the Intel TAT might not perfectly reconcile with the differences in Thermal Margin reported by the Intel Desktop Utilities: These are two different pieces of software measuring temperatures in slightly different ways.

You can clearly see that the Monsoon II Lite is an extremely effective cooler. Even overclocking this high-end quad-core CPU leaves room to spare, and it runs quite a bit cooler than the stock Intel cooler does with the CPU at its default speed.

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