Cooling performance - Core i7 at 3.86GHz/1.3625V
The real killer with respect to cooling is heat, and it can be added by increasing the voltage supplied to the chip. Extra voltage is required when attempting to gain better stability at overclocked speeds. We've increased the chip's frequency to 3.86GHz (29x multiplier) and, to be on the safe side, added 0.1V. This is the kind of situation in which the Hydro H50 should do well.[graph 2006]
The idle temperatures don't change much with the introduction of a higher VCore. The chip and motherboard's power-regulation is such that it's mitigated for the most part. System power-draw is just 5W higher, at 180W.
[graph 2008]
Running the same half-load test results in power-draw climbing from 238W to 262W. All coolers report a higher temperature, but both the Hydro H50 and Ultra 120 do well.
[graph 2009]
The big test is to see what happens when 30 minutes of full load has taken its toll, pushing up system-wide power-draw to 337W. Under-load voltage drops to 1.28V here. The Hydro H50 continues to eke out an advantage over the Thermalright, but the stock cooler struggles, massively so.
[graph 2007]
And the idle-to-load data.