Testing with the i9-13900KS:
For our test protocol, we’re going to use the one we set up to compare the performance of waterblocks and recently used with the Alphacool Core 1.
The tests will be carried out on a ROG Z790 APEX motherboard, combined with an Intel i9-13900KS processor. This processor features 8 P-Cores and 16 E-Cores for a total of 32 threads. For the tests, and to prevent the Boost frequency from distorting the results, we’ll set the P-Core frequency at 5.6 GHz, the E-Core at 4.0 GHz and the voltage at 1.20 volts, with the LLC at level 7.
Temperatures will of course be high, as we’re going to use a stress test that will load our processor at 100% continuously for 10 minutes with Cinebench R23. Of course, in everyday use of your configuration, it’s never the case that all cores are called upon for such a long time at the same time! The reference score, which will be compared with the chiller ‘s performance , will be achieved with an EK-CoolStream XE 480 radiator, 520 x 130 mm, 60 mm thick. It is equipped with four 38 mm thick EK-Meltemi 120ER fans.
As far as our chiller is concerned, we’ll carry out a test with the water temperature set at 20°C, but also at 15°C. We’re off!
Stress tests with R23:
Here are the results we obtained in our series of three tests.
During our first test with our liquid cooling loop, the water temperature climbed to 30.1°C after 10 minutes of stress. With the chiller, it was between 19.8 and 20.5°C in the first test and between 14.6°C and 15.5°C in the second. Our results are perfectly consistent with core temperatures varying according to liquid temperature.
Alphacool’s Eiszeit 2000 still allows us to lower the liquid temperature, but beware: as we continue to lower it, we’ll be confronted with condensation. We’ll need to protect the motherboard, as we do for cold tests. We’ll go further in this direction in a second article.
