Antec KUHLER H2O 920 CPU Cooler Review

Test SetupDue to the software outlined above we will first be doing a test to show you how the Silent and Extreme modes compare. Now while the results may be fairly obvious we are trying to give you some idea of how much control you get over this product as well as what you can expect from this cooler as some of your may buy it because it expected to run very quietly or because at full speed it should be very good at cooling an overclocked CPU.

Test System:

• AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition
• Asus M4A785TD-M Evo
• Crucial 4GB DDR 3 1600 MHz
• OCZ Vertex II 60GB SSD
• Cooler Master Silencio Case + 600W PSU

Hardware Used:

• Sound Level Meter

Software Used:

• HWMonitor
• Prime95
• Windows 7 Home Edition 64-bit
• Antec’s Chili Control V

For the first part of this test we will run the CPU at its stock 3.4GHZ and measure the temperatures after 10 minutes of Idle and then 10 minutes of Load (using Prime95) on both the Silent mode and the Extreme mode. Each test will be repeated to give us a good average.

For the next part of the test we will try to benchmark this Antec 920 cooler against one of its best air-based competitors, the Akasa Venom. While it might not be the best out there it is certainly one of the most popular as it offers a lot of cooling for your money, while looking good!

We will be testing these two coolers with the CPU overclocked to 4.0 GHz by adjusting the CPU multiplier and increasing the voltage to keep it stable. We will let the computer idle for 10 minutes and record this temperature and then run the stress testing program Prime 95 for a full 20 minutes before recording this final temperature. This test will be repeated twice more to achieve a good average.

At all times we will aim to keep the room temperature and on this occasion at a constant 22 degrees C.