Test Bed & Performance Testing
So I could make sure that all results were accurate, I made sure that the ambient room temperature was stable at 25*c using air conditioning and a thermal sensor attached to my other rig. Upon installation, 3 rounds of Intel XTU was run to get heat into the loop followed by 15 minutes at idle.
After 15 minutes at idle, a timed OCCT loop was run for 15 minutes to get things hot at which point load temperatures were recorded. All temps gathered with RealTemp.
Our Test Bed
- CPU: Intel 6700K (Skylake)
- Motherboard: Gigabyte Z170x Gaming 7 Motherboard
- Memory: G.SKILL Ripjaws 4 DDR4-3333mhz @ 16-18-18-38-1T
- GPU: EVGA 980Ti 6GB Superclocked ACX2.0+
- HDD: 500GB Samsung EVO 650 M.2
- Power Supply: Seasonic P-Series 1000W Fully Modular
- Case: Modified Fractal Arc XL
Closed-loop Comparison
All of the closed-loop AIO coolers tested produced similar idle temperatures simply because of Speed step which dynamically reduces the processor’s VCORE and multiplier depending on load. The end result? lower power usage under normal conditions.
What’s almost instantly clear is the H80i cannot handle the heat output of Intel’s 6700K when overclocked. While 79*c is well within the TJmax for this CPU, safe operating temperatures for most modern Intel processors is 70*c.
The most surprising aspect of this test is how well the Fractal Design Kelvin S360 AIO does against the H110 GT which I believe *was* the king of All in one cpu coolers. Despite the smaller surface area, the H110GT has a higher fin density compared to the Alphacool inspired S36 and also comes with some well-known high static pressure fans, however I didn’t expect there to be a 6*c gap between the two!
The Kelvin S36 comes into its own and the extra surface area really shows across the board with temperatures considerably lower than the competition, showing its definitely not slouch despite being Fractal’s first venture into pc liquid cooling – The S36 is perfect for extreme overclocks without breaking the bank.
