Since thermal paste was already applied to the cooler, and additional paste provided, we conducted our tests twice.

Two heatpipes help conduct heat away from the CPU quickly.

The contact surface on the Asus cooler is slightly grooved.

The cooler achieves its best performance with the vendor's original coating of thermal paste. It reaches a temperature of about 59°C (just over 138°F) when the system is running at heavy load. When the thermal paste from the tube is used instead, performance declines a bit; we measured 61°C (nearly 142°F) under heavy load.

For all measurements, this cooler remained comfortably quiet. At fan rotation speed of 1,920 RPM it registered a very quiet 32.4 dB(A).

Retail packaging for the Asus cooler