Page 4: Testing
Testing
In order to get a good idea of how effective the Royal was at cooling, we put it through a series of tests. Each test was using Avidemux to transcode an AVI/MP3 movie into a MP4/AAC movie. Each test was run with the priority set to maximum. What this basically means is that the CPU was running at 100% for about 50 minutes in each test. The test system was a Dell XPS M1710 laptop with an Intel Core 2 Duo T7200 CPU, 4GB of RAM, an nVidia GeForce 7950 GTX, and Windows 7 Professional 32-bit. The M1710 has five different settings for the internal fans: Both fans off; one fan on "low" (around 1500RPM), one off; both fans on "low;" one fan on "high" (around 3600 RPM), one on "low"; and both fans on "high."
Temperatures were recorded with I8kfanGUI, a third party program designed to read the GPU, CPU, chipset and RAM temperatures of Dell Inspiron laptops, and used as an alternative fan controller to the one built into the BIOS. While there were thoughts of testing the temperatures that occurred during gaming, the notion was dismissed due to the lack of consistency in the testing variables. Finally, because this cooler has the ability to shut the fan off, we also tested how well the Royal works as a passive cooler.
It became clear soon into out testing that the test computer was causing rather erratic results due to its construction. Active fans like the test computer (and, indeed, many high performance laptops) bring an entirely new element into the testing procedure in the form of air flow, which is something that it doesn't seem like this cooler was designed to cope with.
As an example, the cooler seems to transfer heat quite well with the fans shut off, but it doesn't quite cool the insides of the test computer enough to have the fan turned off. However, when we forced the internal laptop fans off, the cooler kept the laptop to a temperature of around 51°C. This is particularly odd, because that is actually several degrees below the threshold for when they would turn back on themselves.
These problems continue over to the tests done under load. During the load tests, the test computer shot up to the peak temperatures at roughly the same speed with the cooler fans on or off. However, after the quick rise in temperature, the cooler started doing its job and the temperatures slowly dropped back down to those seen in the averages.
What we took from these rather puzzling results is that there seemed to be some interference with the cooler when it was trying to do its job. Furthermore, because of what we discovered with our tests conducted at idle, it seems the culprit for our results is actually the test computer's internal fans interfering with the airflow provided by the fans of the cooler. Despite the problems we found when testing the cooler with the fans on, our testing done with the fans off does still show that the cooler itself is actually quite capable just being used as a heatsink.
With all of that taken into consideration, a fair conclusion to be made is that a more multimedia-focused laptop would probably get more out of a cooler such as this than our test system did.
In order to get a good idea of how effective the Royal was at cooling, we put it through a series of tests. Each test was using Avidemux to transcode an AVI/MP3 movie into a MP4/AAC movie. Each test was run with the priority set to maximum. What this basically means is that the CPU was running at 100% for about 50 minutes in each test. The test system was a Dell XPS M1710 laptop with an Intel Core 2 Duo T7200 CPU, 4GB of RAM, an nVidia GeForce 7950 GTX, and Windows 7 Professional 32-bit. The M1710 has five different settings for the internal fans: Both fans off; one fan on "low" (around 1500RPM), one off; both fans on "low;" one fan on "high" (around 3600 RPM), one on "low"; and both fans on "high."
Temperatures were recorded with I8kfanGUI, a third party program designed to read the GPU, CPU, chipset and RAM temperatures of Dell Inspiron laptops, and used as an alternative fan controller to the one built into the BIOS. While there were thoughts of testing the temperatures that occurred during gaming, the notion was dismissed due to the lack of consistency in the testing variables. Finally, because this cooler has the ability to shut the fan off, we also tested how well the Royal works as a passive cooler.
Temperature Testing Results (all numbers in °C)
- Name
- Value
CPU Temperature At Idle
- Laptop Flat On Desk
- 43
- Laptop on Royal NP-901: Fans Off
- 38
- Laptop on Royal NP-901: Fans On
- 32
CPU Temperature Average During Full Load
- Laptop Flat On Desk
- 75
- Laptop on Royal NP-901: Fans Off
- 68
- Laptop on Royal NP-901: Fans On
- 53
CPU Temperature Max During Full Load
- Laptop Flat On Desk
- 78
- Laptop on Royal NP-901: Fans Off
- 73
- Laptop on Royal NP-901: Fans On
- 70
It became clear soon into out testing that the test computer was causing rather erratic results due to its construction. Active fans like the test computer (and, indeed, many high performance laptops) bring an entirely new element into the testing procedure in the form of air flow, which is something that it doesn't seem like this cooler was designed to cope with.
As an example, the cooler seems to transfer heat quite well with the fans shut off, but it doesn't quite cool the insides of the test computer enough to have the fan turned off. However, when we forced the internal laptop fans off, the cooler kept the laptop to a temperature of around 51°C. This is particularly odd, because that is actually several degrees below the threshold for when they would turn back on themselves.
These problems continue over to the tests done under load. During the load tests, the test computer shot up to the peak temperatures at roughly the same speed with the cooler fans on or off. However, after the quick rise in temperature, the cooler started doing its job and the temperatures slowly dropped back down to those seen in the averages.
What we took from these rather puzzling results is that there seemed to be some interference with the cooler when it was trying to do its job. Furthermore, because of what we discovered with our tests conducted at idle, it seems the culprit for our results is actually the test computer's internal fans interfering with the airflow provided by the fans of the cooler. Despite the problems we found when testing the cooler with the fans on, our testing done with the fans off does still show that the cooler itself is actually quite capable just being used as a heatsink.
With all of that taken into consideration, a fair conclusion to be made is that a more multimedia-focused laptop would probably get more out of a cooler such as this than our test system did.