Hi,
it's true that it's not possible to know the exact power dissipation of the CPU when running "just any" app, but that doesn't matter - as long as the same app is running during all heatsink tests (and that's what I did), the power dissipation is constant during the entire test.
Concerning compound: You're right that compound is a major source of inaccuracies. Actually a much bigger source of inaccuracies than the kind of temperature measurement. I took great care to appy the compound in the same thickness for all coolers (I did that with a razor blade), and as said before, I tested each cooler three times to ensure the results are consistent. Between tests, I uninstalled the cooler and re-applied thermal compound.
Most of the coolers came without compound (Global WIN FOP38, FOP32-1, Hedgehog, Alpha, Super Orb), so I chose to test all coolers with thermal compound (I used the same thermal compound for all of them). If I had tested the coolers that ship with a pad with their pad, this would have skewed the results, e.g. the Taisol would have performed worse than the FOP32-1, which isn't true.
bye,
Tillmann
it's true that it's not possible to know the exact power dissipation of the CPU when running "just any" app, but that doesn't matter - as long as the same app is running during all heatsink tests (and that's what I did), the power dissipation is constant during the entire test.
Concerning compound: You're right that compound is a major source of inaccuracies. Actually a much bigger source of inaccuracies than the kind of temperature measurement. I took great care to appy the compound in the same thickness for all coolers (I did that with a razor blade), and as said before, I tested each cooler three times to ensure the results are consistent. Between tests, I uninstalled the cooler and re-applied thermal compound.
Most of the coolers came without compound (Global WIN FOP38, FOP32-1, Hedgehog, Alpha, Super Orb), so I chose to test all coolers with thermal compound (I used the same thermal compound for all of them). If I had tested the coolers that ship with a pad with their pad, this would have skewed the results, e.g. the Taisol would have performed worse than the FOP32-1, which isn't true.
bye,
Tillmann