Cooling

ARCTIC Alpine 11 PLUS CPU Cooler Review

 

Testing and Results

I used the following rig to test the Alpine 11:

CPU: Intel Core i7 2600k
Motherboard: Gigabyte P67a-UD4-B3
Ram: G.Skill RipjawsX 2133MHz
PSU: CoolerMaster Silent Pro Hybrid 1300w
Case: CoolerMaster Cosmos II Ultra-ATX

 

I ran CPU at 100% stock settings (3.5GHz with Turbo enabled, which it is at stock) and 4GHz with a fair bit more vcore than needed to make it a nastier load, below are CPUz screenshots of both test speeds:

CPUz-stock

 

CPUz-4GHz

The Alpine 11 was tested with the MX4 paste as well as with ArcticAlumina Cermique 2 (different Arctic, Arctic Alumina is made by the Arctic Silver company), the Intel stock cooler was tested with ArcticAlumina Cermique 2.

First, stock clocks results:

stock_clocks_graph2

The Intel cooler is terrible, fairly obviously.  A rise of 44.4c over ambient means that if your room temp is 28c your core temps are somewhere in the region of 78c.  That’s at 100% stock clocks!

The Alpine 11 PLUS however keeps the temps over ten degrees lower, and is quieter to boot.  That MX4 beats AA-Ceramique2 is unsurprising, MX4 is one of the best thermal compounds out there.

Next, the results for 4GHz with more voltage than such an overclock generally takes.

4ghz_temps2

Ouch.  Core temps for the stock cooler were in the mid 90s, not good!  The Alpine 11 PLUS did surprisingly well for a low profile cooler with no heatpipes, I’m impressed!

Equally impressive is that even with the fan at 100% I couldn’t hear the cooler unless I took the side of the case off and stuck my head inside.  For the MSRP of $14.95, this is an impressive cooler indeed.

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