In a battle of short-and-fat versus tall-and-narrow designs, we compared the Hyper TX to our current favorite, the Zalman CNPS-8000, using an overclocked P4 530 Prescott at 1.52V and 3.8GHz in the following configuration:

Our test lab reached a toasty 26C, a temperature that approximates the internal environment of an average single-fan PC case. 3DMark2001SE heated the entire platform for one hour, using nVidia nTune Monitor to log temperatures. Noise levels are estimated and should have an expected accuracy within 3dB at one meter.

Perhaps not earth-shattering, but the Hyper TX did provide a lower CPU temperature than the CNPS8000 at 12V, and did so while producing around half the noise (SPL is a logarithmic scale). It lost this performance advantage at lower fan speeds, providing similar noise and cooling at 7V to the CNPS8000 at 5V.

Noise levels at reduced voltages were so low as to require closer listening positions for estimates, which were then calculated to the standard 1m distance.