Introduction
The Dominator²
When I received the Dominator² through the post I thought the boys at OCZ had been dumb enough to send me the same cooler twice, such is the similarity between this cooler and its predecessor the Dominator I (Review here). However, a few days later /\/\ajor informed me that the cooler was NOT the same, since it featured 46 rows of fins instead of the original's 40. Lo and behold, when I counted them there were indeed 6 more fins. I could hardly contain my excitement.
The original OCZ Dominator was the best performing cooler I have ever reviewed, but it was just too loud. As you can see from the picture, this will not change since the same Delta Super Screamer™ has been bundled with the heat sink. To OCZ's credit they did supply me with a "low-noise" alternative in the form of a 7000rpm YS-Tech Screamer, which produces the 40 CFM at the same db level as the better known Delta Screamer™ (Vanilla edition).
Since the bottom of the Dominator² is the same as its predecessor, I have re-used the pic from my previous review. Surely I will be struck down for my laziness.
Test Setup
I opted for my usual HSF review system, an Athlon 1.4GHz, since it offers more than a challenge to most coolers. The full specs are:
- AMD Athlon 1.33GHz Processor @ 1.4GHz
- 256MB Cas 2 DDR RAM
- IBM Deskstar 60GXP 20 GB
- Asus A7A266 Mobo
- 19" Sony Multiscan GDM-400PS Monitor
- Win98
- Eclipse ATX Midi Black Case
The thermal compound used was Arctic Silver II. All temperatures were taken using a thermal probe. Idle temperature was measured by allowing Windows to boot up, and leaving the PC idle until the temperature stopped fluctuating. To measure the temperatures at full load, I used Genome @ home and allowed the CPU to run at full 100% load for 15 minutes. This was sufficient to bring the CPU to its maximum temperature under the cooler.
|
