Testing

Obviously, without a fan, this heatsink won't generate any noise on its own so I can skip that portion of the testing.

For my test system I am using a DFI LanParty PRO875B motherboard and a 2.8GHz/800FSB Northwood processor in a Thermaltake XaserV case. The side intake fan bracket was removed since it was gimongous and I didn't want the extra cable management troubles. That leaves me with the front intake fan, the top and rear exhaust fans and the power supply for airflow. Its no surprise that this ThermalTake heatsink fits so well in a ThermalTake case and the rear exhaust fan is located behind the heatsink for excellent airflow. For my "idle' readings I closed out the unnecessary applications and was left with 0-1% CPU utilization. For load testing, I ran the "In-Place Large FFT's' torture test of Prime95. With all that in mind, here are the numbers:

CPU Temperature
(Show All Graphs) (Collapse Graphs)

Idle

Load

Thermaltake 103 Fanless

Zalman 7700 (LOW speed)

Zalman 7700 (HIGH speed)

Zalman 7000 (LOW speed)

Zalman 7000 (HIGH speed)

AeroCool HT101

38

33

32

33

32

34

0

°Celsius

100

 

 

Idle

Load

Thermaltake 103 Fanless

Zalman 7700 (LOW speed)

Zalman 7700 (HIGH speed)

Zalman 7000 (LOW speed)

Zalman 7000 (HIGH speed)

AeroCool HT101

62

50

45

51

46

48

0

°Celsius

100

 

 

It should be obvious looking at the numbers here that this is not the right heatsink for overclocking your system. It did however perform much better than I would have thought. Honestly, I was fearful for the life of my CPU and these numbers show that my fear was misplaced. I should have been fearful for my northbridge! While a temperature of 62C for my CPU doesn't bring me any happy thoughts, the northbridge hitting 68C is downright scary. Without any side intake fans my northbridge is reliant on the CPU heatsink fan for airflow and since the ThermalTake Fanless 103 lives up to its name, that means there isn't any. Although there is a small amount of air moving through the case with the other fans running, it simply isn't enough to keep the northbridge at an acceptable temperature.

With a side intake fan blowing over my chipset, I am sure I would be singing a different tune. That extra airflow should be enough to drop the CPU temp a few degrees and keep the northbridge happy. At the same time, adding a side intake fan defeats the purpose of a noiseless heatsink.

Conclusion

This heatsink is definitely interesting, but it is hard to recommend. If you are looking to build a quiet PC, then you might be tempted to purchase this heatsink. Unfortunately, to get any kind of cooling from it, you will still require other fans, and sometimes more than one, to keep things under control. The Zalman CNPS7700-Cu and CNPS7000-Cu at low fan speeds provide better cooling and, while not truly silent, I sure can't hear them. SharkaCorp sells the ThermalTake Fanless103 for $44.95. That's about the same price as the Zalman CNPS7700-Cu, which doesn't exactly strike me as a great deal.

So where does this heatsink fit? If you've already got case fans out your ears, then you should be able to run this heatsink comfortably. I also see this as a good candidate for a HTPC setup, assuming you are using a standard case to accommodate its size. HTPC systems generally don't hit full utilization and a minimum fan configuration should be adequate and still keep noise down.

Pros

Can't get any quieter
Certainly looks impressive

Cons

Poor cooling performance
No bonus airflow for nearby components such as VRU or Northbridge
Some motherboards will orient the heatsink in such a way as to prevent good airflow