Low Profile Socket-A/Socket-370 Cooler Roundup - December 2001

Introduction

We've been talking about compact servers ever since we migrated to a 1U database server for the AnandTech Forums. And today, for the first time, we're reviewing compact coolers targeted at these 1U servers. The focus of this roundup are 1U coolers for Socket A CPUs, which have higher cooling requirements than Socket 370 CPUs. Still, the results we obtained here also reflect the performance of the coolers when used with a Socket 370 CPU. Even people who aren't building a server but are looking for a high end solution to cool their graphics chip might find this article helpful.

Even on a normal desktop system, cooling CPUs that dissipate over 50W isn't an easy task; under the cramped conditions of a 1U server case things get even more difficult, making the choice of the right heatsink and a good overall cooling concept crucial.

We tested seven coolers for 1U servers, using the testing methodology described in our new heatsink testing methodology article. This test method makes use of a simulator device that simulates a CPU with a power dissipation of 43W - this corresponds to the typical power usage of a 1GHz AMD Athlon MP (Palomino) processor.