Test System and Temperature Results

Test System

Testing Procedure

All testing is done at a room temperature of 22°C (72°F) with a 1°C margin of error. The coolers are tested with Turbo, EIST, and C1E enabled, which will allow the CPU to clock down at idle or clock up to proper speeds under stock and overclocked conditions. The retail Intel Core i7-8700K I use for testing at stock is set to its Intel-specified base clock of 3.7 GHz. Overclocked, the processor is running at 4.8 GHz on the CPU with Vcore maxing out at 1.30 V. During all these tests, fans are set to run at 100% in the BIOS, with temperatures being recorded by AIDA64.

All tests are repeated three times to check for variances at stock and when overclocked.

The idle test will consist of the CPU sitting idle at the desktop for 15 minutes. This will allow for a stable temperature reading that will be recorded at the end of those 15 minutes.

The wPrime and AIDA64 CPU tests represent typical multi-threaded loads. Both offer consistent results, with one being a benchmarking application and the other a stability test. Both are run for 15 minutes before the peak reading during the test is recorded and taken as the result. This test lets enthusiasts know what temperatures they can expect to see with games and applications. wPrime is set to twelve threads, while AIDA64 is configured to stress the CPU, FPU, cache, and system memory.

AIDA64 also offers maximum heat generation when set to stress just the FPU in the stability test, which will push the CPU's power usage to the maximum. This test represents extreme loads, much like LinX, Prime95, and other extreme stress tests many users are familiar with. The test is run for 15 minutes.

Idle Temperatures

Typical Load Temperatures

Max Load Temperatures