Gigabyte Neon 8-BL Heatsink

Supplied by Gigabyte

Gigabyte continues their advance into the arena of PC cooling with the Neon 8-BL. Their latest heatsink is a variation of the Neon Cooler 8-PRO offering the same heatsink without some of the features. The Neon 8-BL answers the call for quiet cooling of the PC.

The Neon 8-BL (blue light) supports AMD Athlon processors up to the FX55 and Athlon 64 4000+. The goal of suppliers and manufacturers is now to market a heatsink that can do the job at a low noise level. Most users dislike high dBa fans that sound like a travel hairdryer resides within the PC case. Some will avoid using the PC altogether due to the intrusive sound.

The principle of a heatsink is quite simple; to provide a contact surface next to the processor core that will transfer heat to cooling fins that radiate heat to the surrounding air which is pushed away by the cooling fan. There are a myriad of designs but all are the same in what they do. The Neon 8-BL is a simplistic approach and there are no additions such as heat pipe technology, extremely thin copper fins or radical fin designs.

However, the Neon 8-BL does have an interesting feature incorporated into the fan box.

The fan box has been fabricated to resemble a grill allowing airflow through the sides. It is thought, presumably, that a solid fan box will contain the back flow of the fan blades and thus add to the overall dBA noise level of the fan. This design allows for the back flow pressure to be released thus reducing the overall noise level. The majority of the airflow is still directed into the fins maintaining cooling efficiency. Noise level is somewhat subjective. This fan is indeed quiet but does produce a higher pitch sound audible at close proximity. The overall sound level will be very “soft” and very quiet at more than 2 feet away.

The Gigabyte Neon 8-BL arrives with a protective patch on the heatsink base.

The patch covers a solid copper core. There are two reasons for this. Copper is a more efficient conductor of heat than aluminum but more expensive to fabricate. The middle ground has been made between cost and efficiency.

The face of the copper core is a more polished surface than the rest of the heatsink. There is no need to polish the aluminum surround it.

The fin design is common and is not radically different from heatsinks of 2 and 3 years ago; the Globalwin WBK-32 and 38 for example.

There will always be opinions on which is better for fin design; thin or thick.

The Evercool fan pushes 33 CFM at 2000 RPM producing a little more than 21 dBa which is similar to that of a whisper from a few feet away.

The fan features 4 LED lights.

Installation

The Gigabyte Neon 8-BL is a medium-sized heatsink and users should not encounter installation problems on Socket 775, 939 and 940-pin motherboards.

The LED fan does make for “pretty blue lighting” when the PC is operational. Those without a side window would not benefit from the effect.

The K8 clip design has made heatsink installation easy. Gone are the days of using a screwdriver to attach a heatsink and the desperate fear of crushing a processor core. At 460 grams this heatsink isn’t heavy.

Hot or cold?

Testing was conducted in a LIAN LI PC67 mid-tower case with only the PSU and heatsink fan operational. The system sat operationally idle for 1 hour prior to running CPU Burn-In 25 consecutive times (Only arithmetic and multi-media ticked). Motherboard Monitor recorded CPU temperature results. Your own mileage may very.

The test system

• AMD Athlon 64 4000+ Processor (32-bit mode)
• Gigabyte GA-K8N Ultra SLI motherboard
• Gigabyte GeForce 6600 PCI-E video card
• 2 x 512 MB Corsair CM512-3200XL TwinX DDR RAM
• LG 8x DVD+/-RW.
• 120 GB Seagate SATA Hard Drive
• Samsung 950p 19″ Monitors
• USB Keyboard and MX700 Optical Mouse
• AMK PC67 PC case (window, fans, cables, loom)
• FSP Blue Storm PSU
• Windows XP Professional Service Pack SP 2 slipstreamed updated

The Gigabyte Neon 8-BL keeps admirable idle temperatures but loses ground under load. The important consideration is noise level. The Neon 8-BL is the most quiet of the four tested heatsinks and ranks second best. Only the Rocket PRO, Gigabyte’s big daddy of heatsinks, tops the charts for cooling efficiency. As expected the Neon 8-BL will take longer to dissipate heat after load cutoff than the more powerful, and noisier, coolers.

Conclusion

The Gigabyte Neon 8-BL does extremely well at idle temperatures and does so at an extremely low noise threshold. Load temperatures were “average” and overclocker’s or cooling addicts would be looking to more expensive, and noisier, heatsinks.

The Gigabyte Neon 8-BL is nearly the same heatsink as the Neon Cooler 8-PRO. The sink is the same but the PRO version comes with a PCI slot fan speed control and a different fan. Gigabyte would do well to include the option of a front mounted or PCI slot mounted fan speed control unit. It’s better to have a fan control unit placed where it is most easily accessible. This would be the advantage of the more expensive Rocket Pro series.

The Neon 8-BL can easily accommodate other 80 x 80 x 25mm. fans with the mounting screws. A thicker fan box would require different screws. Those that may want to use the heatsink but add on a more powerful fan could easily do so. Then again, the Neon Cooler 8-PRO does exactly that by including a 1700-3500 RPM fan which delivers a maximum of 64.85 CFM. Remember that more CFM will produce more noise.

The AMD Socket 939 family provides an important upgrade path for consumers as new AMD processors enter the market. Beyond the benchmarks is AMD’s benefit of Cool’n’Quiet technology. Cool ‘n’ Quiet will further reduce idle temperatures without impacting system performance. Anyone would be remiss by not enabling this feature.

The Neon 8-BL, like some other Gigabyte heatsinks, is not widely available in North America and pricing was not available at the time of publication. The expected range would be between $30 and $35 USD as the 3D Rocket Pro sits at just over $40 USD. Less efficient and noisier fans typically range from $12 to $20 USD. Preferable choices range between $30 and $50 USD and high-end coolers can go up from there. If the Gigabyte Neon 8-BL does price out between $30 and $35 USD then it will be a good deal for a very quiet heatsink for a family PC.

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