Acoustic Samples: Listen to this Heatsink!

The waveform image shown below is out of scale for the level of noise the JMC Arctic Blast was measured to create (46.6 dB). We are still refining the process so listen to the heatsink and hear for yourself what this heatsink actually sounds like. Just click on the headphones and listen to the MP3 recording.

FrostyTech Acoustic Sampling Chamber
Standard Waveform view of a 10 second recording. Click on the headphones to listen to an MP3 recording of this heatsink in operation.

Sound Level Measurements:

Listening to the actual noise a heatsink makes allows you to hear what pure numbers alone cannot get across. To further emphasize FrostyTech's reliance on cold hard facts when evaluating a heatsink, we also take Decibel readings with a sound level meter. These results may be higher than the manufacturer's listed specs, but then again these are real world measurements.

FrostyTech Sound Level Results
-	Manufacturer	Model	Noise Level	Scale
	JMC Prducts	400023	46.6 dB	quiet
	Zalman	All Flower HSF	47.4/28.9 dB
	Taisol	CGK760092	48.4 dB
	GlacialTech	Igloo 2310	49.4 dB
	Noisecontrol	Silverado	50.8 dB
	Thermal Integration	TI-V77L	53.0 dB
	Tocools	Crown	54.5 dB
	Sibak	AT01515B	55.8 dB
	Dynatron	DC1206BMP	65.1 dB	louder

The fan which at first seemed rather simple turns out to be one of the quieter cooling solutions we have looked at. The sound level of 46.6 dB is pretty low for a the heatsinks we have looked at and even slightly lower than the Zalman heatsink.

Synthetic Temperature Test Results: *Ranked according to 100W small interface die test results.

FrostyTech Synthetic Temperature Test Platform Results
	Mfg.	Model	Ambient Temp.	27mm large copper block	15mm small copper block		27mm large copper block	15mm small copper block	Thermal pad	No. Fans	Fan Noise	Clip force
				50W	50W		100W	100W
1	Thermal Integration	TI-V77L	26.5	39.1	44.4		57.5	63.6	grey	1	med	med
2	Swiftech	MCXC370	21.4	38.3	43.4		53.5	65.7	none	1	med	med
3	Tocools	Crown	23.2	38.8	53.2		47.9	70.2	none	1	loud	stiff
4	OCZ	Gladiator	21.4	33.3	47.3		50.6	70.3	none	1	very loud	med
5	Vantec	CCK-6027D	27.4	45.4	49.6		64.9	73.4	none	1	med	med
6	Swiftech	MCX370	22.3	42.0	46.1		60.3	75.6	none	1	med	hard
7	Taisol	CGK760092	23.4	42.7	61.2		51.3	77.5	pink	1	low	med
8	Zalman	CNPS6000-Cu	24.8	46.4	53.8		65.6	78.2	none	1	very low	easy
9	AVC	112AM1	24.8	46.6	52.9		70.1	79.6	none	1	low	stiff
10	GlacialTech	Igloo 2310	23.5	44.9	66.7		53.7	80.8	silver	1	med	very stiff
11	Thermaltake	Volcano 6cu+	26.5	40.3	55.3		58.6	84.4	carbon	1	loud	med
12	JMC Products	400023	23.1	44.5	65.2		55.3	85.2	Chomerics T725	1	low	easy
13	Zalman	CNPS6000AlCu	24.9	48.3	56.3		72.2	86.0	none	1	low	med
14	Sibak	AT01515B	23.0	45.1	64.6		60.1	95.2	none	2	med	stiff
				50W	50W		100W	100W

The JMC Arctic Blast is evidently a heatsink designed for older processors, and as we assumed, not part of a performance cooling line up. JMC list the Arctic Blast as useful for AMD processor of up to about 1.5GHz and that seems about right. The low noise levels are a plus, but can usually indicate the airflow is nothing special either.

Rise Above Ambient Temp. (c)
	Mfg.	Model	27mm large copper block	15mm small copper block		27mm large copper block	15mm small copper block
			50W	50W		100W	100W
1	Thermal Integration	TI-V77L	12.6	17.9		31.0	37.1
2	Swiftech	MCXC370	16.9	22.0		32.1	44.3
3	Vantec	CCK-6027D	18.0	22.2		37.5	46.0
4	Tocools	Crown	15.6	30.0		24.7	47.0
5	OCZ	Gladiator	12.0	26.0		29.2	49.0
6	Swiftech	MCX370	19.7	23.8		38.0	53.3
7	Zalman	CNPS6000-Cu	21.6	29.0		40.8	53.4
8	Taisol	CGK760092	19.3	37.8		27.9	54.1
9	AVC	112AM1	21.8	28.1		45.3	54.8
10	GlacialTech	Igloo 2310	21.4	43.2		30.2	57.3
11	Thermaltake	Volcano 6cu+	13.8	28.8		32.1	57.9
12	Zalman	CNPS6000AlCu	23.4	31.4		47.3	61.1
13	JMC Products	400023	21.3	42.0		32.1	62.0
14	Sibak	AT01515B	22.1	41.6		37.1	72.2
			50W	50W		100W	100W

Looking at the rise above ambient numbers we can see that the JMC Arctic Blast doesn't really pull in any performance level cooling numbers, and instead sits squarely in the class of OEM coolers.

On the small interface die at 100W the Arctic Blast ranks at the bottom of our list of reference coolers, which are not I might add, ranked according to specific types of processors. As always, we rank heatsinks according to their thermal performance.

The best ally of the Arctic Blast is undoubtedly going to be price, and while it will be able to handle older AMD processors, it really has no future with current chips. Perhaps a more powerful fan could be added which would change this somewhat, but limited to a simple aluminum extrusion there is only so much further this heatsink can be pushed.

On a positive side, the very thin fins are a welcome sight that would probably be good to carry further to future designs, and the low noise signature is admirable for a socket A/370 heatsink. Too bad the thermal performance on the small interface die isn't as endearing as that of the large interface die which does pretty well at 100W.