[pHaestus]

A question about drafting a test procedure for review sites:

How big of a parameter is "doing a thorough job" in the final numbers? You can't stop kids from pestering companies for free stuff and then doing a halfassed job testing it. Companies will usually give people coolers to start with (relatively cheap yes?). My gut instinct is that half-assedry (lol) probably makes their results far more worthless than an extra digit of resolution ever could help. Or even a standard testbed.

I don't think you could do even the most rudimentary water cooling system testing without:

1) Measuring CPU temp reliably (0.125C res seemed ok to me but you have to be able to tap into the diode with external readers). IHS case temp would be good enough for general reviewers? Better than MBM, but then whether the TCs stay in spec is a problem. Onboard temp readers from mobo are worthless and I ignore any testing that relies solely upon them.

2a) Water temp inlet side. The other part of the dT measurement if you're testing a waterblock. I guess 0.125C is again ok, but if you want to estimate Watts you MUST have 0.01C resolution and then collect water in and out of the block.

2b) Air into the radiator. The other part of the dT measurement if you're testing a system. I guess 0.125C is ok. This is a very very hard measurement to do well.

What kind of testing could you do with that though? Pretty show and tell stuff:

"in this standard system with xyz components the waterblock performed as so. This can be compared to other waterblocks in the same system as follows"

Can't really make buying recommendations for people unless they too use the same rad, pump, tubing, loop setup. Is that ok? Maybe so for complete systems?