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Performance
How good is the Zen Radiator? The manufacturer is claiming that it beats basically any of the traditional HSF combos, be it copper or aluminum, with 60 or 80 mm fans. On their web page the following comparison is posted:

Source: http://www.tsheatronics.co.jp/zen/htmls/seinou.html

Heatronics is giving the following parameters for their comparison: Gigabyte 7DXR motherboard, Athlon Tbird 1400 MHz, Win ME, ambient 28C, temperature was taken after calculating around 2 million digits with Super Pi, a mathematical benchmarking application similar to Prime 95. The Pin-Fin 760g device is obviously the MC462, because this description matches weight and design of the MC462. In order to verify the manufacturer's claim we used the same motherboard, the Gigabyte 7DXR which fared so well in our AMD760 Motherboard Comparison, under almost the same conditions and compared the results with the MC426. We employed the MC462 with both of the regularly used high performance 80 mm fans, the Sanyo Denki 4,600 rpm and the infamous Delta EHE running at 5,600 rpm. To show the development the air cooling has taken over the last years, we also included a PAL6035 with a 4,600 rpm fan. This is a bi-metal 60 mm HSF, which was not long ago the best HSF for socket A and is still representing mainstream air-cooling.

How we tested:
Gigabyte 7DXR, revision 0.2 with F6 BIOS
512 MB PC2100
Tbird EV 266 1.33 GHz AXIA @1.4 GHz / 1.5 GHz / 1.6 GHz
Core voltage: default for 1.33@1.4 GHz, and 1.85 volts for 1.50/1.6 GHz
Gainward GF3 (review here)
Audigy Gamer
Promise TX/4 Raid PCI controller with 4 HDD
DVD Pioneer 116
CD Kenwood True 72x
Lian Li Aluminum Server Case
Windows ME
Idle Temperatures: 5 minutes after booting
Load Temperatures: after 15 minutes Prime 95
Ambient: 27C~28C

One word of caution regarding the temperatures as reported by the manufacture and in our test: As explained in detail in our review of this board, the 7DXR has a CPU temperature sensor which is touching the bottom of the CPU, and consequently reporting higher temperatures than other boards with the traditional in-socket sensor for the same CPU. The difference in the reported CPU temperature between an in-socket sensor and a bottom-touch sensor (as the 7DXR has it) is up to 10C under load. We regard the relatively high 7DXR temperatures as more accurate than the usually reported lower CPU temperatures with in-socket sensors. I also has to be noted that the room temperature of 28C was rather high.

First of all: the radiator principle works! The benchmark results under load show that the manufacturer's claim is correct. Under almost identical conditions we also achieved a CPU core temperature of 56 C for 1.33@1.40 GHz. This is an amazing 10C better than a a mainstream 60 mm HSF like the PAL 6035. We cannot confirm however the manufacturer's claim that the Zen Radiator is beating the MC 462. Even with the weaker 4,600 rpm Sanyo Denki fan the MC462 stays slightly ahead, and when going up 1.33@1.60 GHz the MC's performance lead is even growing. Coupled with a the stronger 5,600 Delta EHE fan the MC462 leaves the Zen radiator clearly behind. The PAL 6035 could not handle 1.33@1.60 GHz so no result is shown.

What we can see is the following:

• excellent cooling performance in idle and particular under load
• almost 10 C better cooling than a mainstream 60 mm HSF like the PAL 6035
• enough cooling power to take a 1.33 GHz Tbird to 1.61 GHz
• performance is slightly behind the MC 462 with the 4,600 rpm Sanyo Denki fan
• performance is clearly behind the MC 462 with the 5,600 rpm Delta EHE fan
• it seems that with increasing CPU frequency the Zen radiator is more falling behind the MC.

NEXT PAGE - Bad News and Conclusions

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