Review of the Nofan CR-95C (in French)

I've stumbled upon this review of the Nofan CR-95C. They look at lower-TDP CPUs but also the 4670K.

Hello,
always there to relay fanless tests, thank you quartz-1 !
And remember the CR95C configuration in the cooler master elite 110 : http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1876642
The cr-95C is the best fanless heatsink on sale yet. a bit pricey, yes, but for CPU with a big TDP, it was worth every penny.

As usual, if you have any questions, please feel free to ask here, in English, I will try to answer as best I can.

PS : a translation of the website and the blog is planned and a unique topic on this forum, in English of course, very soon

Looks solid,

There's also a review from SPCR a couple years back, where they successfully cooled an i7 965 passively. It succeeded where two other "passive" coolers failed

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1349-page5.html

It's a bit expensive when you can get extremely quiet cooling from a Scythe Kotetsu for half the price. But when zero noise (or low airflow) is absolutely critical, this is the only answer.

thony94 said:

Hello,
always there to relay fanless tests, thank you quartz-1 !

Click to expand...

Good to see you here. I've been a proponent of the CR-95 for many years now. Unfortunately, many have yet to see the light. It's coming up for three years since I installed mine. How time flies.

CR-95 has an interesting look, but it is definitely not anything great. Thermalright's new Le Grand Macho is 2C lower in temperature on a 91watt processor. On i7 6700K CR-95 is 5.3c warmer than Le Grand Macho. While the Le Grand Macho is better than other HR-02 / HR-22 coolers, it is only 3c lower than Macho Zero and 4c lower than HR-22 on i7-6700. Still cooler and lower priced than CR-95

CR-95 € 104.99
Thermalright HR-22 74.42 €
Noctua NH-D14 69.17 €
Thermalright Le Grand Macho (UVP) 59.9 €
Thermalright HR-02 Macho Zero 49.99 €
Thermalright Macho Rev. B w/ TY-147A € 44.99
TY-147A € 13,99

Seems a no-brainer to get Macho or Macho Zero. They are smaller cooler with better clearance, more passive cooling abilty, and cost less than have the price of CR-95. .

doyll said:

CR-95 has an interesting look, but it is definitely not anything great. Thermalright's new Le Grand Macho is 2C lower in temperature on a 91watt processor.

Click to expand...

That's great news; it's always nice to see technology advance. Of course, I've been using my Nofan for nearly 3 years and it's been available for four, maybe more, and the Grand Macho wasn't available then.

Quartz-1 said:

That's great news; it's always nice to see technology advance. Of course, I've been using my Nofan for nearly 3 years and it's been available for four, maybe more, and the Grand Macho wasn't available then.

Click to expand...

I first used the HR-02 summer of 2010, but like many things it is often more about publicity then anything else. There are many things we never hear about until too lat. Sods law says we will learn about something better after we make what seems the best decision.

Careful, because there are fans in the case for these tests!
I have no fan for my test
The thermalright (macho series) are very good when there is a air flow into the case, but if there is no air flow in case, they are bad. I tested the HR-22 under the same conditions and the same test as the CR-95C and here is the results:



The fins are too tightens to allow air to circulate well in the HR22, it is designed to work with a fan (or on the radiator, or in the back of the case).
The Zalman FX70 (45 &#8364 is much better than the HR22, smaller and cheaper (but the CR95 is best ! )
but dissipation surface of the HR-22 is very very big, so long to heat, great if you do not use the processor for long load

Indeed there are fans in the case. And if there is no airflow in a case the system will heat up. That is physics. The heat from component goes from heat sinks to air and warmed air has to be displaced with cool air. You are incorrect about the HR series. They were designed as passive coolers. As for size, the CR-95 is a huge180x180x148mm (3764cu cm) round thing compared to HR-22 is150x120x159mm (2862cu cm) box. Granted the CR-95 has less mass, but it also has much less surface area to radiate heat into the air and 4x single ended heatpipes compared to 8x double ended heatpipes on HR-22.
Neither will cool if there is no "airflow" in the case.
NoFan has this in reference to case airflow::

thony94 said:

I have no fan for my test

Click to expand...

Did you test in a rotated case like the Silverstone FT02? Air should flow in the bottom and out the top simply by thermal convection.

doyll said:

Indeed there are fans in the case. And if there is no airflow in a case the system will heat up. That is physics. The heat from component goes from heat sinks to air and warmed air has to be displaced with cool air.

Click to expand...

That's why I insisted on the rotated case of the FT02. Cool air - not hot air straight off the back of the GPU or PSU or both - comes in the bottom and replaces the hot air rising from the CPU cooler. The Nofan-recommended cases are a waste of money.

Quartz-1 said:

Did you test in a rotated case like the Silverstone FT02? Air should flow in the bottom and out the top simply by thermal convection.

That's why I insisted on the rotated case of the FT02. Cool air - not hot air straight off the back of the GPU or PSU or both - comes in the bottom and replaces the hot air rising from the CPU cooler. The Nofan-recommended cases are a waste of money.

Click to expand...

I have not had the privilege of using any SilverStone cases, but would love to. They have some of a very few cases that are actually designed around airflow and not just looks.

I tested the HR coolers in a Phanteks Enthoo Primo which has 3x 140mm vents in bottom and in top, but not rotated motherboard .. and I do not game so GPU is not a significant heat source, only CPU gets heavy use.

CR-95 is a good cooler for low wattage CPUs in cases with good convection flow. I just think the HR series is easily as good and with a low speed fan give itis far more versatile. Many top tier coolers are very effective at passively cooling 95w CPUs. On a dare I cooled an i7 920 at 100% load with no fans under a PH-TC14PE. It ran for hours and never got above 70c in 22c room .. first on open bench and then in Define R2 with top vents open and front door open at 73c