Performance
Performance of the XE-II is extremely strong, but I'm not going to show you it explicitly here. I've used Asetek's VapoChills for an article on performance scaling that I'll have up on HEXUS soon, which will truly show off their prowess.That said, it would be remiss of me to not give you at least a hint to what the XE-II can do with modern processor and mainboard technology.
Providing AMD stick to 200MHz dHTT, I give you Athlon FX-59
EE by gum!
4.8GHz from Prescott was seen too, using a 3.6GHz ES and 16 x 300, on the ASUS P5AD2-E used for that Extreme Edition shot. It wasn't too stable, hence no CPU-Z, but the XE-II wasn't far off from keeping it so.
In short, awesome performance ability is to be had from modern microprocessors under the VapoChill XE-II. 180W of tuned heat load sees to that. Look out for a closer look at CPU scaling and raw performance using VapoChill in the next week or so. The XE-II is fine for recent Clawhammer revisions at 3GHz, Gallatin-2M Extreme Edition to around 4.1GHz and Prescott to around 4.7GHz.
Noise
This is the best bit. The cooling performance above is joined by whisper quiet operation on the fans. O.K., it's not quite as silent as a whisper, but using the ChillControl software I reduced the fan speeds to around 50% for the overclocking shown above, resulting in audible noise at constant pitch (a good thing) and an estimated 50dBA from around six inches away at head height. Placed further away from where you sit and it gets quieter, to the point of easy tolerance. There's a slight fridge buzz from the compressor, especially on startup, but on the whole it's miles away from the noise the LS makes.The big question for me before testing was "could it run my FX at 3GHz at a noise level I could live with 24 hours a day?". It can. I could. That's about as simple as I can put it. My tolerable levels of noise are your levels of sonic mayhem, but it's quiet to my ears.
