Thermaltake Golden Orb II

Thermal Readings - Overclocked Full Throttle Cooling

In our next round of testing we focused on overclocked performance.  To make sure we ran our CPU at its highest stable setting, we set the HyperTransport link to 3X, locked the memory at 400MHz DDR and raised the clock generator to 242MHz, pushing our CPU to 2.66GHz.  We then let the system sit idle for 30 minutes for each segment and recording the temperatures.

With the no load overclocked test, the stock cooler settled in at 32C regardless of fan speed.  This resulted in a 1C increase at low speed and 2C at high speed when compared to stock CPU speed.  The Golden Orb II also ran 1C higher at low speed, peaking at 26C.  Once we set the fan to full speed, the temperature settled in at 24C, the same temperature recorded in our stock speed testing.  The Vapochill ULN cooler ran 4-6C warmer than the Golden Orb II and 2C cooler than Stock.

Next, we shifted our overclocked testing to fully loading the CPU with Prime95. 

With the stock cooling, we saw an increase of 4C compared to stock speed results.  This resulted in the CPU peaking at 60C with low fan speed and 53C with the fan running full throttle.  The Golden Orb II managed to increase 3C at the low speed setting, running 11C cooler at 49C.  When we set the fan to full speed, the CPU balanced out at a comfortable 46C, just 4C higher that stock CPU speed testing.  The Vapochill Micro ULN narrowed the gap compared to the previous three tests, matching the low speed temperatures of the Golden Orb II while beating it by 1C in the high speed test.