Threadripper processors undoubtedly offer a step up in data processing power. However, with great power comes… greater heat generation. Leading us to ask the question, “how are we going to cool these beasts in our Rackmount workstations?” Since we’ve got our own in-house testing facility, we set up an experiment to identify the comparisons between liquid cooling and an air-cooled system.
We wanted to ensure our 2U, 3U and 4U PCs consistently deliver the best performance possible, not just on paper, but in sustained high workload applications. Regardless of which cooling system you prefer; we will demonstrate the benefits of moving to a liquid cooling solution.
Our test product was based on our 4U PC, using Alphacool components paired with. Noctua’s Industrial fans. Noctua’s fans feature “Focused Flow™ frame” Technology to channel and focus the airflow, which means they rival the performance of conventional fans running at much faster speeds.
The air-cooled system also used Noctua fans with a standard Arctic Freezer 4U-M cooler. In previous tests we’ve found this CPU cooler excelled against stiff competition.
We then took industry standard benchmarking tools, Cinebench and Blender, to measure performance and record thermal performance over a 4hr test.
As with our previous testing we used a common benchmark application to assess the performance. Cinebench is a CPU-based rendering benchmark for optimising 3D render times. It measures CPU performance by rendering a scene using all CPU threads.
Putting our systems to the test, specification:
| 4U PC Arrangement | Liquid Cooled | Air Cooled | |||||||||||
| Motherboard | Asrock WRX90 WS EVO | Asrock WRX90 WS EVO | |||||||||||
| CPU | Threadripper PRO 7995WX | Threadripper PRO 7995WX | |||||||||||
| RAM | 8x Kingston DDR5 5600MHz | 8x Kingston DDR5 5600MHz | |||||||||||
| Storage | Crucial 1TB T700 | Crucial 1TB T700 | |||||||||||
| CPU Cooler | Alphacool NexXxos | Freezer-4U-M | |||||||||||
| PSU | 2000W Enhance ATX | 2000W Enhance ATX | |||||||||||
Test results
Summary, how did we do?
The results clearly showed a considerable increase in performance; even at high workload, the liquid cooled system maintained an incredibly cool 61°C.
| Liquid Cooling Benefits | Air Cooling Benefits | ||||||||||
| Better performance over air-cooling | Cost effective | ||||||||||
| Lower operating temperature | Simple construction and easy to maintain | ||||||||||
| Quieter than Air-cooling at high workloads | No risk of fluid leaks | ||||||||||
| Possibly greater CPU life | Fewer maintenance checks | ||||||||||
| Better for warm installation environments | Light weight |
If you need your system to perform at its absolute best, and let’s face it who doesn’t? And especially if you work your systems hard and hot, we highly recommend making the switch to a liquid cooled system.
All our liquid cooled systems are subjected to rigorous pressure testing which ensures they pass our stringent quality control measures. We also use non-conductive heat transfer fluid, making them incredibly reliable. Should you run into any difficulties, we have a superb warranty meaning that our engineers will get you back to peak performance within 72 hours.
Offering full transparency; we acknowledge that the liquid cooled system will cost more than its air-cooled counterpart. However, if it’s uncompromising performance you’re after, it’s really the only way to go.
