Deepcool Ice Matrix 600 Review

Testing and Setup:

Testing of the heatsink will involve applying a load simulated by Prime95, using small FFTs in stock and overclocked scenarios. Both idle and load temperatures will be recorded. Load temperatures will be the maximum value displayed in RealTemp after running eight threads in Prime95 for one hour, and idle temperatures will be the minimum recorded value by RealTemp with no computer usage after one hour. The temperature values for each of the four cores will be averaged and displayed in the graphs below. The ambient temperature is held at a constant 22.5 °C throughout testing of the Ice Matrix 600, as well as the comparison heatsinks. All the data shown in the graphs below is in degrees Celsius. The included thermal paste from Deepcool will be used during testing, and thermal pastes as packaged from the other coolers were used with each heatsink, respectively. The fan on the Ice Matrix 600 will be run at full speed for these tests.

Testing Setup:

• Processor: Intel i7 920 (Stock 2.66GHz and Overclocked to 3.44GHz @ 1.27V)
• Motherboard: MSI Eclipse SLI
• Memory: Mushkin Ridgeback 12800 6-8-6-24
• Video Card: XFX HD5870
• Power Supply: Mushkin Joule 1000W Power Supply
• Hard Drive: Seagate 1TB SATA
• Optical Drive: Lite-On DVD-RW
• OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
• Ambient Temperature: 22.5 °C
• CPU Heatsink: Deepcool Ice Matrix 600
• Case: Cooler Master HAF 932

Comparison Heatsinks:

• Stock Intel heatsink
• Deepcool Ice Matrix 400
• Zalman CNPS9900 MAX
• Noctua NH-D14
• Deepcool Gamer Storm
• Noctua NH-U12P

Well, the Ice Matrix 600 did slightly out-perform the Ice Matrix 400, but it's obvious that 50% more heatpipes and a higher CFM fan didn't really improve a whole lot on what Deepcool already had in place with the Ice Matrix 400 - a little disappointing. The next page will have my final thoughts about this heatsink.