We tested each cooler with it stock fan(s), and then retested with our own choice of a 2,500 RPM fan to find out how well each heat sink worked at similar noise levels and airflow. The chart below is organized by stock fan performance.

Noctua and Scythe had the largest sinks, so it’s no big surprise that these coolers offered the best performance with the dual-fan NH-14 in the lead. Yet there is a surprise near the middle of this chart: Thermalright’s thin MUX-120 takes second place when our custom fan is used. Middling performance for the stock configuration can be attributed to a low-speed stock fan.
Note that Arctic Cooling’s Freezer 7 Pro Rev.2 reaches an astounding 82 degrees Celsius over-ambient temperature with our highly overclocked processor. This is not a typo! We were forced to drop the lab temperature to a chilly 11 degrees Celsius to complete its evaluation.
Also worth mentioning is that the top four contenders in today’s comparison did not use direct-contact heat pipes, but instead relied upon copper heat spreaders to interface the integrated heat spreader of our CPU. If we instead look at the results obtained using our own fan, Thermaltake’s Frio drops out while Thermalright’s MUX-120 drops in and we’re still left with the top four performers lacking this so-called “feature.”

A fan that hangs below the cooler and an open center allowed Thermalright’s MUX-120 to provide excellent airflow over our system’s voltage regulator. Two peculiarities in this test are that the Thermaltake Frio cools the VRM poorly with our single fan, while Arctic Cooling’s Freezer 7 Pro Rev.2 excels with the replacement fan. Arctic Cooling’s dramatically improved performance is explained by how the edge of the replacement fan rested on top of the motherboard, producing interesting results from an otherwise impractical configuration.
- Lynnfield Can Take The Heat, But Should It?
- Features Comparison
- Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev.2
- Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus
- Noctua NH-D14
- Scythe Mugen-2 Revision B
- Sunbeamtech Core-Contact Freezer
- Thermalright MUX-120
- Thermaltake Frio
- Tuniq Tower 120 Extreme
- Xigmatek Thor’s Hammer
- Zalman CNPS10X Quiet
- Test Settings
- Thermal Testing Results
- Fan Speed, Noise, And Value
- Do We Have A Winner?
Hey Tom's - what temps are you getting at 3.2 GHz with the Arctic Cooling 7? Did you use arctic silver 5?
no worries there you will be fine
Thermalright sent the MUX-120.
Some companies didn't respond to the invitation. Sorry, I didn't keep a list.
I was surprised the new Thermalright Venoumous X was not included. It's an updated version of the Ultra 120 Extreme specifically designed for the new Intel Core i5/i7 cpu's.
Didn't THG mention in an older article that those extra tall heatspreaders that sort of look like a comb did not provide any additional cooling over stock heatspreaders?