Alpenföhn K2 CPU Cooler Revisited

👤by Sahil Mannick Comments 📅04-02-12
Results (Old VS New)

In our first set of results, we will look at how the retail samples compares to the previous prototype we tested. Highlighted in blue (stock CPU speed) and red (Overclocked CPU) are the new results.

Stock


To put my scepticism at ease, we immediately see that Alpenföhn were right about the claimed performance improvements. Starting from the top, we see that with three Noctua NF-P14s, performance has increased by 1C, which as we will see later is enough to propel the K2 to compete with the very best. With two Coolink fans, the temperature delta drops by 1C again. Coupled with two NF-P14s, performance is a heftier 1.25C ahead of the prototype sample. The stock K2 configuration also sees improved performance by 0.75C. Unfortunately, we didn’t have two Föhn 140s so had to make do with two of the 120mm variants instead and results were more than pleasing. With two Noctua NF-P12s, we again see a 1C improvement over the prototype sample. Using a single fan, an improvement of 1.25C is observed which yields a result that is comparable to using two Föhn 140s previously. More impressively, performance at 60% fan speed is a more significant 2C ahead of the old sample. Conversely, passive performance is only 0.5C better. So across the board, we see that the new retail sample is superior to our original prototype.

4GHz


With the overclocked CPU, we see the same trend as before i.e. the retail sample yields improved results across all configurations. The two Cooling fans produce an improvement of 2.5C on the new K2 whereas the three Noctua NF-P14s show a marginal 1C gain. With just two NF-P14s, the temperatures lower by 1.5C. More importantly, the new sample yields a 2.25C improvement over the prototype in its default configuration. The NF-P12 setup shows the same performance gains. Going to a single fan setup, the improvement observed is by 1.75C. At reduced fan speed, the new sample impresses with 3.5C lower temperatures whereas passively, the improvement is 1.25C.

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