Testing
The following tests were run in an open case with the cover removed so that we could better distinguish and isolate the noise made by the XSPC 120mm Fans and reservoir/pump. The XSPC fans were run at 5v and 12v. The Noctua NF-F12 fans were run at 12v and on a PWM profile with an identical curve to previous PWM tests. We recorded the delta temperatures for the results – the difference between the reported CPU temperature and the ambient room temperature. In order to record a valid result, the ambient room temperature has to remain the same from the start of the test to the end of the test and must be between 18 and 24 degrees when starting.
We tested the XSPC Raystorm 750 EX240 kit with our i5-3570K at stock and overclocked to 4.6GHz / 1.15v. We can’t get the chip stable above this no matter how many volts we throw at is so these are the settings we have used consistently.
Test Rig
- Intel i5-3570K Ivy Bridge CPU
- Gigabyte G1-Sniper M3 Z77 MATX Motherboard
- 8 GB of Corsair Vengeance DDR3 Blue Low Profile RAM
- Fractal Design Arc Midi R2 Case
- SanDisk Extreme SSD – 120GB
- Samsung F4 1TB Mechanical Hard Drive
- Corsair CX-600M Power Supply
Delta Temperature Results
Please note that these are all Delta temperatures where the recorded temperature is the difference between the CPU and the recorded ambient room temperature which was a typically about 20 degrees. So a delta temperature of 35 degrees translates to a real world temperature of about 55 degrees.
| Load | CPU Settings (i5-3570K) |
Fan Volts |
NH-L12 | NH-U12S (Single Fan) |
NH-U12S (Dual Fan) |
NH-U14S (Single Fan) |
NH-U14S (Dual Fans) |
XSPC Raystorm 750 EX240 |
XSPC Raystorm 750 EX240 NF-F12 |
| Idle | Stock | PWM | 8.65 | 7.5 | 7.3 | 7.2 | 7 | 6 | 6 |
| Idle | OC @ 4.6 | PWM | 8.6 | 8.2 | 7.9 | 7.5 | 7.5 | 6 | 6 |
| Idle | Stock | 12v | 6 | 7 | 7 | 5.5 | 5.5 | 5 | |
| Idle | OC @ 4.6 | 12v | 9.5 | 8.75 | 7.5 | 7.5 | 5 | 5 | |
| Load | Stock | PWM | 33.65 | 32.25 | 29.3 | 32.25 | 26.8 | 26.5 | |
| Load | Stock | 5v | 24.75 | ||||||
| Load | OC @ 4.6 | PWM | 43.9 | 40.25 | 35.5 | 35.75 | 33.75 | 34.5 | |
| Load | OC @ 4.6 | 5v | 34 | ||||||
| Load | Stock | 12v | 25.25 | 24.8 | 25.25 | 23.75 | 21.5 | 22 | |
| Load | OC @ 4.6 | 12v | 33.8 | 32.5 | 30.5 | 29.25 | 28 | 30.5 |
Idle Delta Temperatures
The idle temperatures are all within a typical margin of error. Measuring idle temps can be unreliable due to minor fluctuation among the ‘idle’ processes – anything around the 8 degrees mark is standard. These temperatures have been included in the interests of being thorough and simply highlight that there was nothing obvious wrong with the water block mounting or the loop in general at idle. For a real comparison, we need to look at how the platform performs under full load. For the purpose of a neat graph, the PWM temperature readings of the stock XSPC fans were actually the fans at 5 volts.
Load Delta Temperatures
We were expecting lower temperatures than our tower heat sinks in the comparison table. Given that the XSPC fans were not PWM (4 pin) fans, we tested them at 5v and 12v with the stock fans and the results were impressive. When comparing the benchmarks, we should mention that the XSPC kit was only tested in ‘push’ configuration with a pair of fans on only one side of the radiator. The air coolers in the comparison chart were tested with a single fan as sold and with an optional second fan. The comparison is still relevant due to the fact that the XSPC radiator uses two fans to cool the surface area.
At 5v, the XSPC fans are pretty quiet – only marginally louder than the NF-F12 in PWM mode but they kept our CPU cooler than the tower heat sinks. The comparison is a little unfair due to the PWM controller modifying the speed of the fans based on temperature and the XSPC fans being set to a constant 5v. The NF-F12 shows what you can expect with PWM fans fitted to the XSPC EX240 radiator – basically on par with a NH-U14S with dual fans fitted.
Running the XSPC 120mm fans at 12v was loud, louder than the NF-F12 Fans on the Noctua NH-L12 and NH-U12S and louder than the NF-A15 fans on the NH-U14S but it did have a slight edge. in terms of the performance.
We felt that 5v XSPC fans provided more than adequate cooling for our overclocked i5-3570K keeping it below 55 degrees in a 20 degree room without an acoustic penalty.
