Thermalright Ultima 90 Review
Former staff writer - February 4, 2008» Discuss this article (0)
Testing:
To test the Thermalright Ultima 90, as well as the other heatsinks, the benchmarks used will be at stock speeds of 2.4GHz (Intel) and 2.3GHz (AMD), and overclocked speeds of 3.15GHz (Intel) and 2.7GHz (AMD). The stock heatsink tested will be benchmarked at stock CPU speeds and 2.7 GHz (Intel), just to show the large temperature drops when using an aftermarket heatsink. Temperatures tested will be at both Idle and 100% Load. Folding@Home will be used to achieve load temperatures. All room temperatures will be climate controlled at 25.5° Celsius (78° Fahrenheit). All temperatures will be measured in Celsius.
Testing Setup:
Intel:
- Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad 6600
- Motherboard: DFI UT NF680i LT SLI-T2RS
- Memory: 2GB Mushkin XP2 8500 DDR2 Memory
- CPU Cooler: Thermalright Ultima 90
- Video Card: XFX 8800GTS XXX 320MB
- Power Supply: Ultra 800W PSU
- Hard Drive: Seagate 320GB SATA
- Case: Thermaltake Mozart
- Opticals: 2x Lite-On CD/DVD+/-RW Optical Drives
- O/S: Microsoft Media Center Edition
- Comparison Heatsink #1: ZEROtherm Nirvana NV120 CPU Cooler
- Comparison Heatsink #2: Tuniq Tower
- Comparison Heatsink #3: Intel Stock Heatsink
AMD:
- Processor: AMD Phenom 9600 200 x 11.5
- Motherboard: Asus M3A32-MVP DELUXE
- Memory: 4 x 1GB Mushkin DDR2 XP2 8500 at 1066 5-5-5-15 2t
- CPU Cooler: Thermalright Ultima 90
- Video Card: ATI HD 3870 512MB
- Power Supply: Mushkin 650watt Modular Power Supply
- Hard Drive: Seagate 320GB SATA
- Case: Thermaltake Xaser
- Opticals: NEC DV5700
- O/S: Windows Vista Ultimate Edition
- Comparison Heatsink #1: ZEROtherm Nirvana NV120 CPU Cooler
- Comparison Heatsink #2: AMD Stock Heatsink
Stock:
Overclocked:
In order to achieve the overclocked speeds of 3.15GHz, the VCore voltage was raised from 1.22 to 1.35, the system RAM was run unlinked, and the NB voltage was set to 1.375. For the stock heatsink, the overclock of 2.7GHz was achieved at stock voltages all around. The stock heatsink was used just for comparison and, as you can see, even without any increased volts, its temperatures are significantly higher. Since there was no voltage added to the core while overclocked, idle temperatures remained the same.

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