--- Thermal Performance, Conclusion and Certification
Thermal Performance
The Amanda's intended role is as part of a high-heat over-clocking system and that's clearly detailed on Titan's website. There is no point buying an Amanda for use with a cool-running Core2Duo CPU – and some chance that it might even detrimental effect on your cooling performance.
At idle, the Amanda did start to show its potential, coming in joint second and, impressively, at just 42 degrees, only one degree warmer than first place.
However, the rear exhaust reading was considerably less impressive. Our take, though, is that since the cooler was less than a centimetre away from the rear cooling fan, airflow wasn't optimal. More space, we think, would likely have produced a better result.
Under load, the Amanda again tied for second and, at 52 degrees, was once more only a single degree off top place. For this group test, we needed to keep the clocks the same for all coolers and suspect that was preventing the Amanda from showing its true colours. We think it would have come into its own under a bit of hard clocking.
Conclusion
The Amanda is a beast of a cooler and its natural home is not within a small case, so our test rig wasn't ever likely to allow it to shine. In a larger case, with more room, there is potential for it to fare a whole lot better and maybe even show a clean pair of heels to the other candidates here.
Although we were using a toasty CPU, at the standard clock speed that was only just enough to get some life out of the Amanda under the control of its TEC chip. We think we're going to have to take this cooler back through the labs on one of the recent Quad chips to see if that does push it harder. And when we do that, we'll certainly use a case that gives it a bit more breathing room.
Even though we have some concerns about size, weight and rigging wires, what we see more likely to hold back the Amanda is cost. Okay, it's not cheap to produce – or, indeed to ship - but at an RRP of around £65, it's far from being an impulse buy. You have to be very serious about your cooling to pay out that sort of money, though those that are, will.
The bottom line? An impressive performance and one that, quite likely, would have been better still in a more appropriate test rig. We will be holding onto this sample and running more tests to see how far you can push it and just how much it can deliver.
