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CPU-only thermal results without power limits
Without power limits enforced on Intel’s Core Ultra 9 285K and i7-14700K CPUs, the CPU will hit its peak temperature (TJ Max) and thermally throttle with even the strongest of air coolers. Because the CPU reaches its peak temperature with air coolers like the one we’re looking at with this review, I’ve measured the CPU package power to determine the maximum wattage cooled to best compare their performance – so you won’t see results in this graph comparing it to the strongest liquid coolers on the market.
It’s important to note that thermal performance can scale differently depending on the CPU it’s being tested with.
Looking at the results here with Intel’s “Raptor Lake” Core i7-14700K, the average watts cooled was 241. This is roughly what I would expect from a modern dual-tower air cooler. This is a level better than Noctua’s original NH-D15 (now known as the G1), and just a hair behind ID-Cooling’s Frozn A620
It is important to remember that CPU coolers can scale (and perform) differently depending on the CPU it is paired with due to differences in manufacturing processes and the location of hotspots on the CPU – and it seems that this cooler performs slightly worse with Arrow Lake.
Looking at the results with Intel’s Core Ultra 9 285K, there’s a larger gap between the Iota A62 WH and ID-Cooling’s Frozn A620. That said, it cooled 285 watts during the course of testing and still managed to outperform Thermalright’s Hyper Vision 360 AIO!
When it comes to maximum noise levels, the Iota A62 WH was moderate, only reaching 44.2 dBA – and as you’ll see in our other benchmarks, it runs much quieter in common workloads.
CPU-only thermal results with noise normalized to 38.9 dBA
Finding the right balance between fan noise levels and cooling performance is important. While running fans at full speed can improve cooling capacity to some extent, the benefits are limited and many users prefer a quieter system.
For this test, I’ve set the noise levels of the air cooler to reach 38.9 dBA. Ocypus’ A62 cooler performed well enough in this scenario, cooling 234W – essentially on par with the best result I’ve recorded thus far on this system with FSP’s closest competitor, the MP7.
253W results
My recent reviews have focused more on tests with both the CPU and GPU being stressed, but many of y’all have indicated that you would like to see more CPU-only tests. In response, I’ve started testing Intel’s “Arrow Lake” Core Ultra 9 285K with a 253W limit.
The results here are reasonably good. Thermalright’s Peerless Assassin delivered the best results for an air cooler, but the Iota A62 is only behind that by 2 degrees C, while slightly outperforming FSP’s MP7.
135W CPU + 290W GPU results
Testing a CPU Cooler in isolation is great for synthetic benchmarks, but doesn’t tell the whole story of how it will perform. I’ve incorporated two tests with a power limit imposed on the CPU, while also running a full load on MSI’s GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER 16G VENTUS 3X.
The CPU power limit of 135W was chosen based on the worst CPU power consumption I observed in gaming with Intel’s Core Ultra 9 285K, which was in Rise of the Tomb Raider.
Thermal performance is good in this scenario, on par with Thermalright’s Peerless Assassin in terms of CPU temperature. Iota’s A62 WH manages this while running quieter than the Peerless Assassin, and only reaches 38.9 dBA in this test!
85W CPU + 290W GPU results
Our second round of CPU + GPU testing is also performed with Arrow Lake. The power limit of 85W was chosen based on typical power consumption in gaming scenarios using the Core Ultra 9 285K CPU. This should be fairly easy for most coolers, the main point of this test is to see how quietly (or noisily) a cooler runs in low-intensity scenarios.
With a CPU temperature of 56 degrees C, Ocypus’ Iota A62 WH performs in line with other air coolers like ID-Cooling’s Frozn A620 and Thermalright’s Peerless Assassin 140. It does this while reaching only 37.3 dBA, which is a nicely low volume level.
Conclusion
Ocypus makes a splash into the cooling market with its Iota A62 WH, which features low noise levers in common workloads, good temperatures, attractive looks, and a unique dot matrix for displaying CPU or GPU temperatures. This version of the cooler runs for $65 USD, but if you don’t need the display other variants can be found for a much cheaper $39 USD.
