Testing:

Tetsing involved monitoring idle and load temperatures with the CPU at stock speed, as well as while overclocked. CPUID's HWMonitor was used for monitoring the idle and load temperatures. Idle conditions were established with a 30 minute period with only HWMonitor running. For load conditions, a combination of SiSoft Sandra Professional’s Burn-In Test and FutureMark's 3DMark Vantage were run for 30 minutes. Each test was done with a room temperature of 21 degrees Celsius. The air temperature inside the case averaged 27 degrees Celsius.

The first graph shows how the Thermaltake Frio stacked up against several other coolers at stock speed and under idle conditions. The Thermaltake Frio came really close to beating the Ultra Products TEC cooler. It should be noted that the Ultra Products TEC is a Thermoelectric cooler that is more advanced than the Frio or the other coolers included here. The difference in temperatures between the Frio and the TEC was very small, between 1 - 3 degrees depending on fan speed. Turning the fans on high, the Frio was able to tie the TEC, however the fans are a little loud.



Next we have the load temperatures, and once again the Ultra Products TEC bested the Thermaltake Frio by a few degrees. The Frio was able to cool the CPU much better than the stock cooler or the Asus Arctic Square.