Intel stock coolers

[Cptn Vortex]

So I have about 6 or so different intel stock coolers, and can get pretty much any number more. I was thinking of wasting a day or two soon testing them all out and comparing how they do. Thought I would ask for some tips to reviewing, I guess this should be an easy one, just recording idle and load temps? What would you consider good times? About and hour idle and an hour load each?

[Wankerfx]

I would have a set ambient temperature throughout all of your testing (Ex: 20ºC). Test the idle and load of your processor for about two hours each, and be sure to use small FFT's for your Orthos, so you can stress the CPU a lot.

[CasheKicker]

be good if you had a way to measure DBs for noise

[3.0charlie]

Didn't Tom's Hardware test stock cooler lately? CPU Cooler Charts 2008, Part 3 - Are Box Coolers any Good? | Tom's Hardware. Don't do what they did, test from a case and read their forum to find out what the members taught of the testing.

With all that information, you can do way better than Tom's Hardware.

[Cptn Vortex]

Yeah, they did a few of the ones I have, but I also have the QX9650 box cooler, which is massive, and the tiny little E2160 and E3110 low profile heatsinks too. Wonder how they will do!

[Mr. Cipher]

I personally don't see the point in case testing since you're testing the case airflow (another variable) at the same time, confounding the results.

I measure the difference from ambient for the effectiveness in cooling, rather than absolute temperatures.

When I run my tests, I like to use two or three idle/load passes and average those (effectively an average average), rather than one really long test.