Performance

Note:
Room temperature is maintained at 20°C (68°F). Since you need EIST enabled to make use of the Turbo Boost feature with this generation of Intel Core processors, letting the machine fall back to the idle state is becoming a norm. Hence Idle (stock) refers to the machine running at 1.60 GHz (12x 133 MHz), with vCore at 0.928 V. Idle (nominal) refers to the machine idling at the processor's nominal clock speed of 3.06 GHz (23x 133 MHz), with EIST and C1E disabled.

Load (stock) refers to the CPU running four threads of Prime95's "In-place large FFTs" stress test for 15 minutes, with default BClk value of 133 MHz, with EIST, C1E, and Turbo Boost enabled. Turbo Boost bumps the clock speed of all four cores by 133 MHz, taking it up to 3.20 GHz (24 x 133 MHz).

Load (OC) refers to the CPU running four threads of Prime95's "In-place large FFTs" stress test for 15 minutes, with overclocked BClk value of 166 MHz (4.00 GHz, 1.38V). We chose 4.00 GHz as it's stable on just about any cooler, while giving us close to 1.4V of vCore to test load on.

The fan is set to run at 100% speed (i.e. no motherboard-based fan-speed control was in place). For the "idle" noise tests, we set the motherboard's Smart Fan control on, with PWM method of control enabled.

Temperatures have been taken via RealTemp.


With huge architectural improvements, processor manufacturers have made their chips adequately fast in idle clock states to run most applications without any noticeable performance drop. Whenever the CPU isn't keeping up, it jumps to higher clock speeds, and if even that isn't enough, technologies like Turbo Boost kick in, pushing the clock speed up further.

The Xigmatek Aegir has a quieter fan than the Intel stock HSF, and is able to keep the idle (stock) temperatures 5°C lower. For those who still don't trust the processor's inbuilt speed control and run their processors at nominal speeds, the Aegir lets the idle (nominal) temperatures go up by a few degrees. At nominal speeds, the CPU core voltage is also set higher (0.928 V with EIST vs. 1.22 V without), that accounts for a warmer CPU.


With Prime95 applying maximum CPU load (large FFTs), the Aegir stands up to it with temperatures in the mid 40s. That is surprisingly low compared to the Intel stock cooler. With OC applied, we could immediately see the Intel stock HSF inching past 70°C.

Fan Noise

With PWM-based fan-control enabled, the Aegir is whisper-quiet. It spins at around 1000~1200 RPM, it's only when this control is lifted that we realize the fan is quite noisy, running like this it doesn't offer a noise advantage over the stock HSF.