SUMMARY: Even though it is under one week till AMD conduct their worldwide launch of their desktop 64-bit processor, Athlon 64, many people will still buy current Athlon XP 32-bit processors for a little while to come as Athlon 64 drives its pricing down across the globe. Today Shawn "Toxic" Baker has a four way AMD Athlon XP heatsink shootout comparing two heatsinks from CoolerMaster and Thermaltake including the CoolerMaster Jet 7 which only came out of NDA today!
The original Aero 7 did have some problems and was recalled. Since it was such a good cooler CoolerMaster were hard at work creating the new and improved flame-free Aero 7+. Another weird looking cooler on show, fortunately it’s not about looks - it’s about performance.
- The Heatsink
The Aero 7+ uses an all copper design which causes it to weight slightly more then the Jet 7 cooler. The CoolerMaster logo is printed on one side of the heatsink and the color definitely makes it stand out from the rest. Some people won’t like the overall weight of the cooler. The all copper method usually cools better then a mixed one and we will see later on how it performs against its new big brother, the Jet 7, and the other competition.
- The Base
The base of the cooler is very flat and we can’t see why you would want to lap it. The flatter bottom is going to give us better contact with the processor core which will overall result in better temperatures. This particular base does feel smoother then the Jet 7 and we will see what it does for temperatures later on.
- The Fan
Here we see another weird looking fan. The design behind this fan, like the one on the Jet 7, is to help eliminate the dead spot that is so common on normal fans. The fan pushes 10.9 CFM @ 1900 RPM and 26.9 CFM @ 3500 RPM. The fan is definitely louder then the Jet 7 but unfortunately CoolerMaster don’t have an official dBA rating on their website. We will see if these new fan designs make a difference when it comes to performance or are they purely there to look good and amaze folks in store.
- The Clip
Like the Jet 7, installation is made very easy with a simply push down clip. The need for a screw driver is eliminated thanks to CoolerMaster spending the extra few dollars to create an easy to use clip. It’s not uncommon for a screw driver to slip and dive into your motherboard rendering it useless if it touches tracks, etc.
- Fan Control
Like most of the other coolers in the group, we have complete control over the Aero 7+ fan. There isn’t much to say about the particular fan control as it is exactly the same one found on the Jet 7.
