Swiftech MCX159-CU

Installation

First you have to remove the old chipset passive cooler, and remove any thermal interface material. I used a rubbing alcohol pad.


Then you apply some of the thermal paste provided which is by far some of the best TIM around.


Then you place the heatsink, clip it down, and then screw on the fan. The easy installation took me about 3 minutes (including removing old HS and replacing thermal paste).

Testing

Test System
Motherboard	ASUS P5WD2-Premium
CPU	P4 561 (3.6GHz) With Zalman 9500 LED on it
Video Card	ATI Radeon X1800XL
PSU	OCZ Powerstream 520 Watt
Memory	Patriot PC6400 D9
Case	Lian Li PC-65b

Test setup: I ran a series of tests, first at stock, then I dropped the multiplier to 14x and took the FSB to 320 to achieve 4.5 GHz. Various voltage mods have been done to this motherboard, so my results may vary form yours.



Interpretation of results: As you can imagine this little heatsink held its own against the passive aluminum cooler that came with the motherboard. Temperatures were also much more stable with the MCX159-CU because of the fan and its copper design. I had a few problems with the passive one. The problems consist of instability at a high FSB when the chipset would go over 70°C. I would see constant freezing and such, but once I put on the MCX159-CU I didn't experience these problems any more. I guess if I had gone high on the FSB my system would have become more unstable with the passive, but there would be more room left with the MCX159-CU.