Benchmarks: overclocked
These high-end coolers make more sense when you're running an overclocked CPU, so how do they fare when we speed things up a little?
To find out, we feed 1.35V to our Core i7 980X processor and raise the core clock speed by 25 per cent to 4.15GHz.
The Core i7 chip runs a little warmer with extra voltage coursing through its veins, and the KÜHLER 920 again shows its ability - it's able to keep the CPU very cool.
The temperature gap between the cooler's Silent and Extreme modes still remains, but 36.8ºC isn't a bad worst-case-scenario.
Here's where the KÜHLER 920 shows its potential. With the 980X running flat out across all cores at 4.15GHz, Antec's solution is able to stay ahead of the pack and keeps a couple of degrees cooler than Corsair's Hydro H70.
The cooler doesn't do too badly in Silent mode, either, and that's because it sees an increase in liquid temperature and ramps up fan speed accordingly.
