Now that I've had times to read it and really look at the graphs, I think his testing proves even further that most of these coolers are not even being pushed by the chip. Most of the two fan configuration graphs prove that the heat sinks are removing the heat faster than the cpu can put it out. This is really evident on the medium TDP with the 1500 rpm fans and he points it out too in the article. Problem is, if all the heat sinks are not being pushed by the cpu with active cooling, how is it possible to discern a winner except the one cooler that is the cheapest? Why spend the extra money on the Meg when the Ninja 2 will do the same job for cheaper?
So, we move on to the High TDP. The expectation is this is where the pack will be separated cause we are really starting to push the processor. Again though, even when moving from one to two 1500 rpm fans, a lot of the heat sinks have almost no response. Moving to the 3000 rpm fan give a good drop in temperatures over the 1500 rpm one because, I believe, the fan type has changed to one that not only moves air, but can create a lot of air pressure. Proof is that when a second fan is added all of the heat sinks respond by dropping 2C. All of them, from the True copper to the HR01+. Yes there is a little bit of a spread between first and last, but all of them were removing just about all that the cpu was putting out. Want the best performer for that fan? Go get a Ninja 2, it will do just as good a job and cost a lot less.
All the coolers he tested were treating the cpu like the fat kid in the park taking the ice cream from the baby. What his tests really prove is that even the hot 65nm C2Q can be cooled by the mildest priced cooler. No reason to run off and get a Meg when you can get a Ninja 2 to do the same when equipped with the same fan. Plus, none of the coolers were made to run in an open air case without a fan. It would have been interesting to see the results provided by a 1000 or 2000 rpm Kaze since given the same rotation as the slower fans he tested they will give more pressure and could possibly make the coolers with the denser fins perform better.
This is also what i7 has brought, it has separated the men from the little girls. My Vendetta 2 was rocking no problem with 1.3v on my Q9400 with the stock 1400 rpm fan. RT never would report more than 55C when running Linpack trying to find stability. If I tried to run the V2 with its fan on my i7 with 1.3v, my processor would go out behind the barn and have its way with the V2 until the processor blew up. According to RT, the temperatures just fire off to 80+ with in seconds and quickly keeps climbing.
While he was really in depth with seeing how flat bases were, force of clamps holding, exhaustive checking of the TIM on the IFX to find a hold down problem, fin density, and others I think he really missed the important point that was right in front of him with the results: The Core 2 chips never really pushed any of the aftermarket coolers out there.
I think this is why it seems that all hell is breaking loose over how more and more people say that the IFX does a much better job on the i7 than the rest of the field. I don't think anyone really realized how little the Core 2s pushed the cooler, then Intel throws us the i7 and can generate the heat to separate the field that the Core 2s couldn't. Its probably also the reason that everyone is in disbelief about the results that Xbitlabs keeps getting with the IFX and thinks they must be doing something to give it an advantage since the cooler doesn't do that with any other chip out there. Not even the chips from AMD seem to be able to generate the heat that the i7 can and uses to separate the current field of aftermarket cpu coolers.
If you want something that is going to do a good job cooling an i7 with HT enabled on air, your going to have to get a cooler that has a large fin surface area. This will allow the heat to spread out over the cooler before it starts to be overcome by the heat of itself because it can't get rid of it fast enough. You can quote me on this, if the Asus Triton 88 and Noctua NH-D14 ever get released, they will perform close to what is being seen from the IFX given the same fan(s).
I'm still going to wait for the Noctua since the hold downs they use for their coolers are a lot better than Thermalright's plus I feel like I should be required to modify a cooler hold down just to get it to perform like it should. I'll spend my money on another cooler that can.