Cooling Performance

For performance testing, I ran the Castle 280EX through our standard set of tests which include stock fan speed and 100% fan speed tests using three different load types on three different CPUs. The idea is to see how it performs in different situations. Because of the way Ryzen throttles, for two of the loads, I also keep track of the clock speeds as well. Starting with the most demanding load, AIDA64’s Stress Test on the FPU setting. When compared with the H100i the performance was the same on the 3900X and the larger dual 140mm radiator helped cool the 3600X down one degree lower with the stock clock speeds. Then on the 3400G APU things ran two degrees lower on both tests.

The FPU test is always the most extreme but the AIDA64 Stress Test using the CPU setting is a lot more realistic to what you will see in normal use unless you are rendering. Here the Castle 280EX edged out a degree on the H100i on the 2900X and three degrees in both of the 3400G tests. More importantly, these temperatures weren’t high enough to cause the CPU from getting its best possible clock speeds.

The last test is similar to the FPU load. For this one, I use Blender to render 3D scenes. This isn’t a synthetic load and you can see that for the 3900X with the stock fan profile the larger radiator and fans dropped the temperature a degree. Same with on the 3600X on both tests. Then for the 3400G, the stock profile dropped 3 degrees and 2 on the 100% fan speed.