ASUS Crux K8 MH7S Heatsink

     Most people know ASUS for their award winning motherboards or graphics cards.   Today we will be taking a look at something new from the engineers at ASUS, the Crux series heatsink.  ASUS has a reputation as one of the top motherboard manufacturers in the industry.  Can the guys at ASUS bring the same level of performance to cooling your Athlon?

     The Crux K8 MH7S is the first chipset cooler from ASUS.  Also available for the Pentium 4 Socket 775 and Socket 478, though each form factor must be purchased separately.  The MH7S is designed to replace the OEM cooler with no motherboard modification required.

     ASUS has chosen the blister pack to show the product and reduce cost.  This packaging may not be fancy but it does keep cost on this cooler under $20.  This product is courtesy Justin and the crew at SR-Systems.

Once we get things out of the package we can see the unique fin design and the solid copper core.  ASUS calls this design the "Omni 4 way."

     This picture from the ASUS website shows the Crux cooler using thermal imaging.  As you can see, the heat is pulled out from the core in all four directions.  ASUS has also noted that testing shows the Crux also helps lower the temperature of surrounding components by up to 15 degrees.

Features:

  - Application to K8 Athlon 64 (745/939 pin), Athlon 64 FX (939/940 pin)
  - Aluminum extrusion with Copper inserted
  - Patented heat sink for omni 4-way airflow
  - Smart IC auto-detection sensor fan
  - Silent & long life expectation
  - Tool free and easy assembly

     "ASUS Crux K8 MH7S comes with the best combination of fan and heatsink. Even with Aluminum extrusion and Copper inserted, the performance of Crux K8 MH7S can compete with competitors' all-Copper solutions!" -ASUS

Installation:

     I installed the ASUS Crux MH7S onto an ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe motherboard running on an AMD Athlon64 3000+ processor.  The build includes two BFG 6600 GT OC cards in SLI, 2 x 512 OCZ EL Gold Series DDR, two Seagate hard drives and a Lite-on DVD-ROM.  The case is an AeroCool Masstige with a rear mounted 120 mm fan and a Super Flower 480W modular power supply with a single 140 mm fan.

     With the 80mm fan, the Crux looks a lot like the AMD OEM fan.  ASUS has gone with a Smart IC auto-detection sensor fan, this means the fan will run quieter and ramp up as needed.  Notice the two clamping levers to hold the cooler tightly in place.

     With the fan removed, you can see the copper core runs completely through the heat sink.  The unique fin pattern of the heat sink may be the origin of the Crux name.

     From the side you can see the size of the MH7S is not that much different from the OEM fan.  Even with the tight motherboard components on the A8n-SLI Deluxe MB, the Crux fits right in.

     This view shows the mounting hardware in more detail.  Simply click the brackets on and use the two latches to tighten firmly into place.

Here is the completed installation.  No fancy lights or gold finishes for this unit.

Testing:

     I tested the MH7S after idling for about 8 hours to get an accurate resting temperature.  the Load measurements were take after about an hour of 100% CPU utilization by PassMark's Burnin Test 4.0 Pro.  All surface temperature readings were taken using a Cen-Tech non-contact laser thermometer.  All other readings were taken by the ASUS BIOS and confirmed using SiSoftware Sandra 2005 Sp2.  (In both states the CPU was running at a 215 MHz BUS speed or slighty overclocked using the ASUS NOS software.)

     This chart shows the temperatures as recorded from the center of the heat sink.  The ambient room temperature was 72 degrees and confirmed at the 120 mm exhaust fan to match.  The Masstige case is well vented and usually matches the ambient room temperature pretty closely.  The ASUS Crux consistently performs 5-7 degrees cooler than the OEM unit.

     This chart shows the CPU core temperatures both at idle and at load.  A cooler core means a stable CPU.  Here we can really see the advantages over your stock cooler.  The extra cooling also means more room for overclocking!

Conclusion:

     While the ASUS crux MH7S cooler doesn't bring earth shattering temperature drops home, it shouldn't.  With a price point under $12 on many sites, the Crux cooler is a budget upgrade from your OEM cooling solution.  ASUS has provided a measurable increase in performance with a consistent 5+ degree improvement over the AMD OEM Cooler.  And the ASUS is dramatically quieter as well.  I would guess this cooler is targeting those forced to replace their CPU cooler or looking for a slight edge over stock cooling.  Those with high end performance in mind would be better served by the performance of the ASUS Star Ice series.  My thanks to SR-Systems for providing the MH7S to the Club for this review!