Heatsink Test – Joe
SUMMARY: A OK choice for non-aggressive P4 cooling.
The good guys at Vantec were nice enough to send a sample of the Mach 1 heatpipe heatsink for a test spin. Mounting options include gear for Intel Pentium4 (Socket 478), AMD Athlon 64 (Socket 754), AMD Athlon 64FX (Socket 940), AMD Sempron 64FX (Socket 754)and AMD Opteron 64FX (Socket 940).
The fan is infinitely adjustable with a PCI slot-mounted slide switch:
The 70 x 15 mm fan is rated at 2800 – 3800 rpm, 29 – 34 dBA. The full package:
This is a twin heatpipe unit:
There are two sets of fins, the smaller set on the base and the large array to cool the heatpipes.
Mounting is straight forward – there are two clips which engage the P4 retention bracket. Note that the clips are off center, so you must “stagger” them.
Parts that ship with the unit allow for multiple mounting options:
The base is well finished:
When I ran my nail over it, I could not feel or hear any ridges.
The Vantec Mach 1 was tested on an Acorp 4S845A motherboard with a modified P4 1500 to read CPU case temps. I tested the Mach 1 at its highest and lowest fan settings.
| Motherboard | CPU Case Temp | Ambient Temp | Delta | C/W | MBM Temp |
| 4095 rpm, 58 dBA² | 33.8 C | 20.1 C | 13.7 | 0.24 | 32 C¹ |
| 3016 rpm, <50 dBA² | 35.9 C | 20.3 C | 15.6 | 0.27 | 33 C¹ |
Results place Vantec’s Mach 1 in the lower rank of P4 heatsinks tested to date (Heatsink Ranking).
I have built a new die-tester with a 100mm² die. This is about as severe a test as can be devised – there are no comparable results to compare this to yet. I will be reporting dual results to get some idea of the relationship between the two methods.
| Test | Die Temp | Ambient Temp | Delta | C/W |
| 4078 rpm, 58 dBA² | 49.9 C | 19.5 C | 30.4 | 0.43 |
| 3034 rpm, <50 dBA² | 52.7 C | 19.6 C | 33.1 | 0.47 |
Vantec’s Mach 1 Heatpipe is attractively packaged and an OK choice for non-aggressive CPU cooling.
Thanks again to Vantec for sending this our way.
²Note that manufacturers measure fan noise usually 3 feet from the fan.
Be the first to comment