Testing.

 

Just like with the 620, we tested the KÜHLER on our test system, which has an AMD Athlon XII 265 processor.

Of course, in this test we not only have the stock cooler to compare with, but also the 620.

Just like last time, we conducted tests at the rated speed of 3.3GHz as well as overclocking the processor as best we could.  We then performed a torture test on the processor using Prime95, which maxes out each of the cores, for a period of one hour.  We also ran monitoring software which captured the maximum temperature that the processor and it’s cores reached during the test.

The resulting chart got a little bit complicated (you can view it here).  So to simplify things we averaged the results for each of the different speeds that we ran the processor at:

 

As you can see, the 920 trounces everything in Extreme mode.  But then, given the amount of noise it makes, you’d hope it would do.

In silent mode it still out performs the stock AMD cooler by a large margin, but it slightly outdone by the 620.  It’s important to realise, though, that in silent mode the 920 is just that; silent.  You cant blame it for letting a small amount of heat build up when it’s doing everything in it’s power not to make any noise.

Bare in mind also that these results are the highest temperatures recorded during an hour long test where the processor was running constantly at 100%.  In day to day use, and even in gaming, the processor is never going to do that, so real world temperatures should be lower.

 

Conclusions.

We thought that the KÜHLER 620 was impressive, so you can imagine how we feel about the 920.  Not only do you get a massively improved cooling performance, but the control software adds the profiling side of things that was missing from the smaller model.

With this cooler you can set it up to suit the type of system you’re using.  If you want a massively powerful processing machine you can set it in Extreme mode and overclock your CPU as far as possible.

At the same time, HTPC owners can set it in Silent mode and be sure that their system will stay as quiet as possible while maintaining a good level of performance.

Everyone else can set it in Custom mode and set up a profile that meets their exact needs, gaining the perfect balance between performance and silence.

Those points aside, the KÜHLER 920 is every bit as well built as the 620.  We have complete faith that one of these units would give us years of cooling goodness before we had any problems.

The price isn’t even that bad.  We’ve found it online for around £70, which sounds a lot, but compared to a full water cooling kit it still works out quite cheap.  It’s still more than most people would consider spending though, so we have to mark Antec down slightly in this regard:

 

Design:               10/10

Performance:       10/10

Cost:                  7/10

Cool Factor:        10/10

Overall:               9.5/10