Aerocool HT-102 CPU Cooler Review

Cooling/CPU Cooling by piotke @ 2005-11-08

Heatpipes and led fans seem to be a trend. The only way to be different is performance and price wise. Today we are testing the Aerocool HT-102 CPU cooler. What are its chances against some well known heatsinks?

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Testing & Analysis

Test setup & Methodology :


Piotke's Test Setup
CPUAMD sempron 2600+
Cooling
  • Aerocool HT-102
  • Scythe Shogun
  • Asetek Vapochill Micro Ultra Low Noise
  • Thermalright XP-90C
    • MainboardAlbatron K8 Ultra-U Pro
    VGAAlbatron MX480
    Memory2*512 Mb A-Data Vitesta DDR600
    PSUAntec TrueControl 550 Watt


    Of course, I don't use my system on default clock speeds. I added an extra 400 MHz to the cpu:

    Madshrimps (c)


    The Sempron 2600+ @ 2000 Mhz and 1.6 vcore is putting out close to 100 Watt according to this online calculator.

  • All results were taken with room temperature at ~22°C. Due to room temp fluctuations, different mounting and user error can account up to 1-2°C of inaccuracy from obtained results. Please keep this in mind when looking at the results. Each heatsink was tested repeatedly; if I got questionable results the test was restarted.
  • Setup was installed in a case less environment
  • Noise level of each fan was recorded with SmartSensor SL4001A. The sensor was placed ~65cm away from the HSF. The lowest dBA reading in the test room was ~32,5 dBA.
  • System was stressed by running K7 CPU Burn for 30min (after Thermal Compound’s burn-in); this application pushes the temperature higher then any other application or game we’ve yet encountered. Speedfan was used to log maximum obtained temperatures.
  • Arctic Silver kindly send us their “Lumière” thermal testing compound which has the same color as Ceramique, requiring a mere 30-minute of break-in time!


    Pure Performance
    Madshrimps (c)


    When setting the fan at high speed the HT-102 is trailing the pack, so it’s not a high performance monster; turning the speed down of the fan looks promising as the Aerocool comes in 2nd after the XP-90C.

    Balance Noise/Performance
    Madshrimps (c)


    The fan on the HT-102 is not too silent, the 20dBA rating the specifications state must have been taken at 5 meter distance I’m guessing. The low fan settings seems to be a winner though, the noise level drops a massive 10dBA (from loud to dead silent) and performance only suffers mildly (+3°C).

    Let’s wrap things up ->
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