How we were testing
What are the best settings for Fuma? This is a question that belongs to our complementary review where we traditionally test heatsinks with reference fans. This time in two configurations, with one and with two fans. We went from really noisy settings to completely silent mode. The temperature behaviour is captured minute by minute. Let’s take a look at how this twin-tower handles passive cooling compared to top-notch coolers.
Conclusion
Poor results of Fuma rev. B are not caused by the fans. The efficiency of original Scythe fans is decent. The difference at the same noise level is negligible compared to Noctua iPPC.
If for some reason (because of compatibility with higher RAM modules, for example) you decide to use just one fan, you will notice that it affect things only at a very low flow. At that point, Fuma really falls behind SPC Fera 3 v2. But if you use both fans at low speed, you can get decent results (definitely better than with Fera).
The measured noise levels are remarkable. Fuma is always the quietest, both with one fan and two fans. Sometimes the difference is even 2 decibels. Edited ribs are obviously working. Someone might say that it’s due to the narrow towers, but Okeanos is also thin, and it is way louder.
Fuma has average results in the passive mode. In fact, the ribs are not that far away from each other, it is more of an optical illusion. The exceeding corner of every second slats can make you think that the space between is at least 3 mm wide (the reality is 1.8 mm). This design cannot beat Zalman that easily. With system cooling, Scythe can put up a good fight, but without it, that gap and the loss on FX70 becomes huge. Up to ~ 20 °C if you are using more demanding processor.
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- Contents
- How we were testing
- Cooling the MOSFETs
- With the same fans
- Passive mode with system fans
- Passive mode without system fans (+ prints of the compound)
- Conclusion
