 |
Swiftech Apogee GT |
|
Performance
Straight after mounting, the block was demounted and contact was checked. There was a very strong suction force – so strong infact, that I pulled the CPU out of the socket along with the block (and yes, I did twist it a bit, but that obviously didn’t help). I can’t say anything else than that contact is excellent.
I decided to test temperatures on my Opteron 144. For initial testing, I used the integrated diode - actual values were then measured using a Fluke 54 II Thermometer and thermocouple, located at the edge of the IHS.
Idle temperatures were measured after 30 minutes of the PC idling at desktop. Load temperatures were measured after 30 minutes of CPUBurn K7. While this may seem short, keep in mind that CPUBurnK7 places an extreme load on the CPU. The heat output that can be achieved by running CPUBurnK7 is much greater than that of a CPU loaded to 100% by any other program (say Prime95).
The TDP of an AMD Opteron 144 (1800 MHz, 1.39V) is 67 W. At 2502 MHz, 1.55V, the TDP is 115 W, at 2700 MHz, 1.55V, the TDP is 125 W.
The water cooling kit used during testing was made up of the following:
- Pump: Eheim HPPS+ in Power mode
- Apogee GT
- Black ICE Xtreme II with 2 Sunon 7W fans, running at 100%
- AGB-O-Matic plug-on reservoir
| Opteron 144 | Clock, Voltage | Temperature Load | Temperature Idle |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thermaltake Orchestra | 1800MHz, 1.4V | 30°C | 26.5°C |
| Thermaltake Orchestra | 2502MHz, 1.55V | 36°C | 26.5°C |
| Thermaltake Orchestra | 2700MHz, 1.55V | 39°C | 28°C |
| Alphacool | 1800MHz, 1.4V | 28°C | 26°C |
| Alphacool | 2502MHz, 1.55V | 30°C | 26°C |
| Alphacool | 2700MHz, 1.55V | 31°C | 27.5°C |
| S80DP, dynamic fan | 1800MHz, 1.4V | 37°C | 28°C |
| S80DP, fan 100% | 1800MHz, 1.4V | 32°C | 25°C |
| S80DP, fan 100% | 2502MHz, 1.55V | 39°C | 27°C |
| S80DP, fan 100% | 2700MHz, 1.55V | 41°C | 28°C |
| Apogee GT | 1800MHz, 1.4V | 30°C | 28°C |
| Apogee GT | 2502MHz, 1.55V | 32°C | 29°C |
| Apogee GT | 2700MHz, 1.55V | 33°C | 30°C |
| Apogee GT, bowed | 1800MHz, 1.4V | 32°C | 28°C |
| Apogee GT, bowed | 2502MHz, 1.55V | 33°C | 29°C |
| Apogee GT, bowed | 2700MHz, 1.55V | 34°C | 30°C |
From the graphs you can see that the Apogee GT is about 2 or 3°C worse than the jet-impingement Nexxxos XP. In my opinion this is a great result. Also note, that bowing the block caused worse temperatures in our case. This is probably due to the fact that the AMD IHS was flat to begin with, and so by bowing the block, we actually lost some contact area.
| No Block | 0.182 m³/h |
|---|---|
| Flow with Nexxxos XP | 0.129 m³/h |
| Flow with Apogee GT | 0.168 m³/h |
As you can see, the restriction of the Nexxxos XP is much higher than that of the Apogee GT.
