Testing.

 

We tested the KÜHLER 620 against an AMD Athlon X2 265 using the stock cooler, and then the 620.  We tested at the standard clock speed, 3.2GHz, as well as overclocking the processor to see how far we could push it.

For each test the processor was torture tested using Prime95, which maxes out the processor cores, for a period of one hour.  The resulting maximum temperatures of the chip and it’s cores were recorded.

An Athlon X2 is far from “performance” hardware, but what interested us was how far we could push this budget processor in terms of clock speed.  In other words, could it become as useful as a more expensive processor?

 

 

The chart above shows the temperature’s recorded after a one hour test in degrees Celsius.  As you can see, we were able to push the processor up to 4.2GHz before we started to see the same sorts of temperatures that the stock cooler produced at 3.3GHz.

We’d have liked to have pushed it even further but the Windows installation on our test system wouldn’t boot beyond 4.2GHz.  That’s not to say that the CPU wouldn’t have done it; AMD’s own specs say that this chip will operate safely up to 74 degrees Celsius.  We’re not quite sure why Windows decided not to boot, but the results we’ve achieved show that you can expect around a 20-30% performance boost without affecting system temperature, when compared to the stock cooler.

 

Conclusions.

There’s nothing to say that we wouldn’t have experienced similar levels of performance with a high-end traditional cooler, but overall there is definitely an improvement in cooling efficiency when using the KÜHLER 620.  The KÜHLER also excels where a traditional cooler might fail; noise levels.

The 120mm fan on this unit is thermostatically controlled, so the cooler your system runs, the slower the fan spins and the less noise is produced.  Considering that we replaced an existing 120mm fan when we installed the 620, we’ve seen an overall reduction in noise levels for almost 100% of the time.  Only when we really pushed the processor did we see the fan spin up above 1200 rpm, at which point the noise was more noticeable.

What we’re saying is; these units aren’t just useful tools for overclocking, they also have a place in the Home Theatre market where low noise levels are far more important than clock speed.

It’s not really any more difficult to install than any other decent cooler either, so it gets reasonable marks for that too.

The price is reasonable too.  The RRP in the US is $70, and UK buyers can pick one up for around £45 online.  That’s probably around the same price that you’d pay for an equivelent “traditional” cooler, which would be heavier, larger and (probably) louder than this cooler.

Overall, we love it.  It’s cheap, easy to fit (compared to a full water-cooling system), works well in performance and home theatre PC’s, and it earns you the right to call your system “water-cooled”.  If you want liquid cooling in your system, but don’t want the cost or risk of a full setup, this cooler could be the one for you.

 

Design:               9/10

Performance:  8/10

Cost:                   7/10

Cool Factor:    10/10

Overall:            8.5/10