Page 3 - Installation and Test Results
The installation process for the SAMA L70 360WH is quite straightforward. For my AMD CPU, I started by screwing the mounting brackets onto the AMD stock backplate. That is it for this side, it is as simple as that.
Before installing the pump block onto the CPU, I first installed the radiator with the fans, since this was the more involved step. For the case I was using, I had to unscrew the fans, because I needed to sandwich a metal tray between the radiator and the fan. I chose to do a front mount with the tubes in the upper position due to the limitations of my case. It is commonly recommended to orient the tubes on the bottom for a front mount to ensure air bubbles do not form during operation. Luckily, I did not hear any noise during testing or everyday use. Noise during testing or everyday use is one of the main indicators for the presence of air bubbles.
With everything else in place, I applied the included SAMA Freeze thermal paste and screwed in the pump block. I do not have much more to say, so let us jump straight to the tests.
Our test configuration is as follows:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X
Motherboard: Gigabyte X570 AORUS Elite Wi-Fi
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4-3200 4x8GB
Graphics: ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 3080 V2 OC Edition 10GB
Chassis: Lian Li Lancool II Mesh RGB
Storage: Western Digital WD_BLACK SN770 NVMe SSD 1TB, Western Digital Black SN750 NVMe SSD 1TB
Power: Corsair RM850x 850W
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro
Compared hardware:
- SAMA L70 360WH
- SAMA A60E
- be quiet! Pure Rock Pro 3
- Cooler Master Hyper 212 Pro
- Cooler Master Hyper 411 Nano
- Cooler Master Hyper 612 Apex
All tests were performed on my custom-built computer to best reflect real-life performance. The computer remained in a room with the temperature controlled to be about 20 degrees Celsius for all tests. The thermal paste was applied according to standard practices for AMD CPUs. The fans attached to the radiator were all connected to the same CPU 4-pin fan connector on the motherboard. The eight case fans, three GPU fans, and the product's CPU fans in my computer were all set to max speeds to allow maximum airflow through the heatsink for all tests. For the idling tests, the computer was left running for at least an hour before data was collected. To stress the CPU, Prime95 was used to place a high load on all available threads using the Large FFTs torture test setting. The highest core temperature measured by HWiNFO was recorded after waiting at least 10 minutes for the temperature to stabilize. HWiNFO is used to obtain accurate temperature data, since it directly reads the CPU's integrated thermal sensors.
Starting with the idle test, the computer was left idling for a long time before the highest core temperature was taken. In the first graph, the SAMA L70 360WH achieved the lowest temperature at 23 degrees Celsius. The idle test performance was good, but we will have to see how well it performs in the load test.
After stressing the CPU for over 20 minutes to generate as much heat as possible, the temperature was stabilized, and the highest core temperature was recorded at 46 degrees Celsius. The SAMA L70 360WH achieved the lowest temperature by 2 degrees Celsius, but keep in mind all the other compared coolers are air coolers. For my midrange AMD Ryzen 5600X, the SAMA L70 360WH did not significantly outperform everybody else. The L70 360WH is by no means a bad cooler, but it is nothing exceptional, especially considering this is a 360mm model. These results seem to be consistent with others who have tested the SAMA L70 360WH.
In terms of the volume produced by the fans on the SAMA L70 360WH, it was very quiet on idle. On a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 is pure silence and 10 is standing right below fireworks, I would say the cooler is a 1.0 on idle. The sound produced is still rather quiet, even when putting my ears right next to the fans. SAMA claims the volume produced is 28dBA when the fans are spinning at maximum speed, which equates to a volume slightly quieter than whispering. I measured the volume to be 36dBA at 50cm. Subjectively, I would give it a 3.5 on my scale. As for the pump, I would rate the volume to be 1.0 at both its lowest and highest settings.
Overall, the SAMA L70 360WH performed acceptably well for my midrange CPU setup. The noise produced is excellent at low speeds and reasonable at maximum speed. I did not hear any sort of unusual noise coming from the pump, pipes, or radiator, despite mounting the radiator with the tube side up.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Hardware
3. Installation and Test Results
4. Conclusion
