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Twenty Five Intel CPU Coolers Tested
Kez writes "Over recent years coolers have grown increasingly exotic in design, striving for good cooling performance and low noise even with the most power hungry of CPUs. But sometimes that comes at a price, be it straining the motherboard's socket to its limit, or the wallets of PC enthusiasts. Investigating which coolers do their job well without snapping your motherboard in two, HEXUS.net reviews 25 LGA775 coolers."
That the most effective (and costly), is sticking my wife on my processor. Her icy cold personality towards my computers has allowed me to reach near 0 Kelvin on many over clocked processor lines.
i have seen less adverts on a domain squatters site, running a website must be really expensive if you have to be that desperate to plaster the page with 20+ adverts per page (from multiple advert servers) and as a result create a page that is over 400kb of tracking/advert scripts and images when the actual content you read is about 1kb
i guess dignity has no place on that site, or this one for that matter for linking to such a pathetic excuse for a website
Wow, one graph per page. Why do PC reviews think spreading out the entire review on 20+ pages is such a good idea?
622677120
When was the last time a CPU failed at stock speed with the stock cooler?
The obsession with aftermarket cooling solutions for all but the harder core overclockers strikes me as about as ridiculous as engine oil companies' claims of their oil increasing engine life over other oils. When was the last time you heard about an engine seizing that didn't straight-up run out of oil or suffer from a factory error?
Exec 1: So how do we fit 1 million ads into a review?
Exec 2: 25 products with 4 pages each?
Exec 1: BRILLIANT!
I have a CNPS7700-AlCu. It's a cheaper one than the one they review - and also smaller. The piece of metal with the vanes sits straight on the CPU with no heat pipes or anything. What they don't mention is that even my smaller cooler is technically out-of-spec - they're heavier than a LGA775 cooler should be, but motherboards don't actually snap that easily.
Anyway, the cooler comes with a device for adjusting it's speed, and it is practically silent on the lowest setting while still providing pretty good cooling. It helps that my processor isn't a very hot one (Intel Core 2 Duo 6300), but even on the silent setting I cannot make it go over 49 C. In fact, the vanes have enough surface area that if it's a cold day, the cooler works fine disconnected, i.e. without the fan turning.
As they say, fitting it can be a pain, but that is presumably the price you pay for fitting some 700g of copper on the motherboard.
By the way, it's worth taking measurements or checking their list of supported motherboards - it's physical dimensions are beyond the LGA775 spec as well. It extends out over the components immediately surrounding the CPU, and on my motherboard it neatly blows air through the northbridge and GPU heatsinks.
# cat
Damn, my RAM is full of llamas.
Some really, really great coolers, like the Noctua U12 or the Ultra 120 Extreme, don't fare very well on their test.
Also, if you haven't noticed, there's no word about fan noise... Which is extremely important to a lot of people. What good is a couple of degrees difference between cooler A and cooler B, if the latter includes a 4000 fan that sounds like a jet engine while the former is inaudible in a closed case?
Look elsewhere if you want to read proper articles about the subject.
3rd place
Tuniq Tower 120
It may not be an easy cooler to install but that's made up for by its performance. Enthusiasts rave about the Tower 120 and their praise is not misplaced, judging by the figures we saw. Third position overall and deserving that high placing along with an eXtreme Recommended award.
2nd place
Scythe Miné
While Scythe might not class the Miné as a high-performance cooler, we most certainly do. It delivers exceptional performance and at a price well under £30 that even deep-pocketed enthusiasts won't begrudge.
Worthy of overall second place without a doubt and deserved winner of an eXtreme Recommended award and also an eXtreme Value award.
1st place
Thermaltake Big Typ VX
In terms of bangs-per-buck, the Thermaltake Big Typ VX, in our view, delivers the most right now. It's got the lot great cooling performance; simple and speedy installation; and a price that's more than a few pennies under £30. Indeed, it's so good and such good value - that it comes away with a trio of awards.
In this LGA 775 cooler round-up, the Thermaltake Big Typ VX grabs our eXtreme Editors Choice award, an eXtreme Recommended award and also an eXtreme Value award.
If you care about keeping your CPU cool and you absolutely should then the Big Typ VX is what you'll choose for your Core2Duo.
The Big Typ VX is also able to spread its goodness around, being compatible with three other types of CPU socket - 754, 939 and AM2
insight through the mind
2. You rearrainge your workspace to see the built-in temperature guage no matter where you are.
3. You have a variable speed control for the fan on your power supply, and adjust it based on weather conditions.
4. You believe that the fan on top of your workstation blowing out actually does anything worthy of the added cost.
5. Your workspace sounds like a 747 on approach because of all the fans in your workstation.
Nobody ever got laid over their ability to keep their computer cool. Cool is out, QUIET is in, bitches.
Ok, all nice and cute... ...But ONE HUNDRED AND NINETEEN pages to describe CPU coolers?
I mean, WTF? Next time, just put one word per page, alongside 29763410974 banners/links/ads and be done with it. This kind of... err... "journalism" is spiraling down. Quickly.
I know I will miss some incredibly useful piece of vital information by avoiding to read all 119 pages. But I also know there are more creative ways to offend my own intelligence.
1) Make review span 120 pages (literally) 2) Put 5 flash adds on each page 3) Profit!!!
Why are you pretending to know what you're talking about? Anybody who knows anything about the CPU market knows that the Prescott's stock cooler is utterly inadequate. Hell, that's even Intel LGA775, so it's bang on-topic, and still you appear ignorant of it.
Do us all a favor and refrain from spreading your ignorant misinformation in future.
A ten page article spread out onto 120 pages. Wow. Anyone have a one to ten page link for us dial-up/cell phone uses?
Does anyone really care about 2*C lower if the thing sounds like a jet taking off? I would imagine that someone who cares about such a tiny margin will use water cooling anyways.
Instead of sound levels they test installation time? Unless you are changing the thing daily or installing thousands on an assembly line I fail to see the importance of this metric.
25 CPU coolers on your machine - that's got to be a chilly box... Add a beer compartment?
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
No, the cooler is dissipating previously evolved heat generated by the amount of electricity moving through the processor. It's just wasted E left over from processing. To reduce the amount of power consumed by the processor, one must manually (or automatically in some cases) reduce the voltages associated with the operation of the CPU (Vcore) or throttle the clocks on the CPU. You can do some low V overclocking with very good cooling. You should also be able to run your voltages at lower temps even at stock speeds, due to the overall temperature of the silicon comprising the CPU core. Lower temperature means lower Temp induced irregularities in the paths, hence (at least theoretically) you would require less V to "jump" these irregularities. I don't think anyone can argue that a CPU/Cooling solution that could hypothetically maintain near 20C temps at load would be capable of nearly sipping power. This is all highly variable though, as I'm sure "gap jumping" isn't the sole duty of the energy moving through the processor, most likely leading to a very non-linear or diminishing returns relationship coming into play. Also, the drops in voltage afforded by superior cooling at stock speeds are minimal (0.3V normally), so the cooling solution would almost have to be passive, or the marginal energy savings would be immediately, and in most cases drastically outweighed by the power consumption of any active cooling, be it fan or liquid cooling pump. Disclaimer: All of this knowledge is based on hobbyist overclocking experience. I am not a hardware engineer nor claim expertise, so the letter of the law may have discrepancies, but I feel that the spirit of the message is largely intact.
Somethings kinda screwy here I have 2 Noctua NH-U12F heatsinks, and they preform way better than stated in that review, At least 7 degrees off in there temps. I also have a Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro in one system, and its nowhere near as good at cooling compared to the Noctua NH-U12F.
Yea the Freezer 7 is simpler to mount, but it doesn't require a rocket scientist to mount the Noctua.
Perhaps they messed up something when mounting it? Thats the only possibly that seems reasonable. Seeing that I think its best to take the rest of the review with a grain of salt.
The graph for CPU temp under load - my question is, if you're an aftermarket cooler maker, and you can't even beat the Intel stock cooler, why exactly did you go to market?
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
FUC*ING WORTHLESS WITHOUT objective (measured) and subjective NOISE TESTS. Subjective results are really important as even if your dB meter isn't showing anything above ambient there still could be very very annoying noises coming.
Although I believe "spam" is the currently accepted term.
Under certain conditions, the motor oil in your car can literally cook itself into a solid, and stop lubricating an engine.
If you are lucky, your radiator overheats before you blow a gasket separating oil from water. Get water into a place where oil goes and all kinds of things can go wrong.
The answer? Synthetic oil only. It does prolong engine life, especially in older cars with lots of miles on them. No matter how hot they get, they dont cook off and stop lubricating an engine. Also, the best synthetics dont have to be changed as often, along with the oil filter which does not get as dirty as with regular motor oil.
Dont worry, most geeks dont know anything about cars, so you are excused.
One is a passively cooled sink, so if you're not concerned about the few degrees centigrade difference, but are majorly concerned about noise, you can get a passively cooled one that doesn't cool as well as stock sink, but it also has no fan.
I mean it just seems to me to be ridiculous to have detailed review of the packaging of all these coolers, and to pick a winner on something we'll throw out, but not to measure one of the most important factors in choosing a cooler -- noise levels.
I just can't fathom why the packaging review, it makes me suspect the motives of the whole thing.
Has it been over a year since you last donated to the Electronic Frontier Foundation
I've have a (sucky) Dell desktop and when it is clean inside it runs quietly, even at 100% CPU load. Then as the days go by and the dog scratches his derriere repeatedly the fan noise rises. After about 10 days to two weeks I have to shut it down, vacuum it thoroughly inside and it is quiet once again.
So, how do these coolers perform with some dust in them? That is the cooler I want for the increased uptime.
I come here for the love
Ok, why would anyone spend $50+ to buy one of these monstrosities? Two reasons:
1. You want safe overclocked performance from the latest Core2Duo processors
2. You want a 'quiet' CPU cooling solution
This review utterly failed to achieve either end-user goal because they failed to even attempt to control variables, among other problems. Instead they:
1. Completely ignored noise as an issue. Sure the winning heatsink has huge heat pipes and all, but does its built-in fan sound like a jet engine to achieve its mark?
2. Did not standardize on a single 3rd-party fan to control for the huge variance in quality from one manufacturer to another.
3. Did not standardize on a single high performance thermal compound, but rather used whatever cheap goo each manufacturer stuck in the box.
4. No indication whether any of the extra cooling performance achieved by the top sinks actually has any positive effect on overclockability (aside from noise, the only other reason why you might reasonably consider one of these heatsinks). Many overclockers fail to achieve >50% overclocks of Core2Duo due to voltage regulation, memory or chipset cooling issues, independent of CPU cooling. For example, if your motherboard can't maintain a consistent voltage for the CPU under load, it doesn't matter that your heatsink achieves -270 degrees Kelvin.
So, in summary, all I've found out is which retail combination keeps my CPU coolest, irregardless of noise and whether the extra cooling performance actually matters. Hmmmm...great. IMHO, if you need to buy one of these things (like I did a while back) do yourself a favor and go read http://www.silentpcreview.com/ . They're a lot more scientific about their methodology.
Disclaimer: I do not and have not ever worked for, nor do I know anyone who works for SilentPCReview, I just happen to think their testing methods suck a lot less.
I meant -270 degrees C.
"Ok, why would anyone spend $50+ to buy one of these monstrosities?"
You left out three. Your CPU runs too hot anyway. Mind you I need a GPU* cooler not a CPU cooler, but the point's the same.
eVGA Nvidia 6600 GT runs about 75-80 C with no load, and goes over a hundred under load. I may also switch to this case, but that may invite dust bunnies.
It's not easy, but it's not very hard either. Rather it's time consuming, but as a previous poster mentioned it also delivers very tangible rewards much like a "70% off" coupon on your next processor purchase, and presumably many if not most of all CPU's you buy after that.
Also, while the methodologies are architecture specific (AMD, Intel), overclocking is somewhat akin to romance languages, in that once you learn one well, the other falls into place with much less effort.
"It's not easy, but it's not very hard either. Rather it's time consuming, but as a previous poster mentioned it also delivers very tangible rewards much like a "70% off" coupon on your next processor purchase, and presumably many if not most of all CPU's you buy after that."
Did you factor the increased electrical consumption* into your "value" equation?
*Both computer and cooling, external and internal.
Im all for site trying to make money from ad's, really I am. But 120 pages? LOADED with ads. Thats just insane.
Most people use whatever stock cooler they get when they buy the CPU, which in this day and age is both reasonably quiet and keeps your CPU reasonably cool, without either the need to actively monitor or actively tweak it.
/really/ warrant custom cooling, most people I've met who buy this shit are people who could have gotten more benefit with one tenth the hassle by putting their money where it mattered. What we collectively and commonly term "idiots".
People who want a faster gaming rig buy faster graphics cards and more graphics cards.
People who want more CPU power buy faster CPUs and more cores.
Ignoring for the moment the bare few whose environmental conditions
What DOES give value to many people today, however, is:
[a] QUIET
[b] Low power consumption (which, for me at least, translates into hundreds of dollars a year saved, plus some warm fuzzies for being eco-friendly)
Now if they were to review worthwhile solutions to THAT, both me and most of my geek friends would be getting much much more value and useful information out of said "journalism". Too bad they're still stuck in 1998 catering to overclocking pissing contests.
I recon I can do better, so here goes:
CPUs break up into the following catogories:
Desktop - 60-120Watts
Laptop - ~30 Watts (Most mobile core duo/core 2 duos- 5x00, 7x00 fit here)
LV - ~10 Watts (Celeron M xx8)
ULV - ~5 Watts (Celeron M xx3, Via C7, AMD Geode NX [1.5GHz ULV AthlonXP]
"REALLY REALLY" ULV - 5 Watts AMD Geode GX/LX [p2/3 class CPUs]. See Jetway 8x00 boards.
The latter three can use passive cooling.
Now consider the following suggestions:
Core desktop platform:
Kontron 986 board+CPU. ~900US$. A bit tricky to source, but can be done.
Uses a Yonah-based 1.06GHz ULV CPU (what you find in ultraportable laptops). ENTIRELY SOLID-STATE.
Being mini-itx, uses all standard ATX cases and PC hardware (RAM, PCIe, IDE, SATA, etc)
fast 16GB CF card for OS ~ 200US$. (remember to tweak XP/Vista to disable on-access writes, or you'll kill the flash card in a matter of months).
PicoPSU-120 - 60$.
60 or 90 Watt power brick - ~20$.
Machine profile: 30-40 Watts.
Core platform has NO MOVING PARTS (fans, drives, etc), hence SILENT.
For >16GB storage: replace CF with harddrive.
For casual gaming: Even being a low-clock CPU, it's still a Yonah core, has resonable L2 and a PCIe slot. Add Geforce 8800GTS-320 and any 450Watt PSU (the rest of the machine takes almost nil), it'll kick ass, just note that an 8800 eats 250Watts on idle, closer to 350 when under load. If you're concerned about power consumption, I'd start powering the machine down when not using it.
For less casual gaming: bump up the CPU from a 5Watt profile to a 30 Watt profile. Consider mini-itx solutions that can take some form of a T5x00 or T7x00 (Merom, dual-core) CPU and have PCIe. This will give you the rough equivalent of an E6400 (or even more) for half the power, and *MIGHT* even be palatable with some silly 2kg passive copper brick to keep the thing quiet.
For living room PC:
Via EPIA EN-12000 (1.2GHz C7 CPU) with GbE - ~300$ (Mobo + CPU).
PicoPSU 120.
12V/5A power brick.
2GB Flash with Winows XP.
Use networked RAID as storage.
Add haupage PCI card to make it a PVR.
Plays back MPEG2, DivX, what have you.
Core platform has NO MOVING PARTS (fans, drives, etc), hence SILENT.
Machine profile: 30-40 Watts.
For Fileserver:
Jetway J7F4 12000. (2xGbE, 1.2GHz CPU, 2 SATA). ~200$.
OS: 2GB CF with whatever server OS floats your boat.
PCI 4-port SATA card - 30$
Core platform has NO MOVING PARTS (fans, drives, etc), hence SILENT.
Add 4-6 400GB (or whatever cheaply-available sweet-spot drives you can find).
Option to make it nice and tidy: Cheap removable rack for ~100$.
Movi
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My physics says that resistance increases with heat, thus at higher temperatures you need a higher current to achieve the same voltage. Lower temp = lower resistance = lower current.
How many people can read hex if only you and dead people can read hex?
You greatly reduce the noise production by, twice every year, wiping all dust off the cooler-fans and fan-blades (especially onderneath where it's hard to reach) with a toothbrush (not your own).
You 'll be surprised.
If you mod this up, your slashdot background will turn into a beautiful sunset!
1st place - Thermaltake Big Typ VX
2nd place - Scythe Miné
3rd place - Tuniq Tower 120
4th place - Titan Amanda
5th place - Zalman 9700
127.0.0.1
Some boards, such as my Asus P5W DH Deluxe have different ways to overclock, some of which are absurdly simple, such as "overclock 30%". By looking at the values it used, and a quick google search, it didn't take me long to figure out how to overclock to much faster speeds with the manual settings. (The problem I had at first was setting my memory far too fast and making the system crash. By setting it to ~800 mhz, I got my processor stable at 3.5GHz easily.)
i feel sorry for the reviewer, what a moron, comparing coolers using different fans is pretty much useless. you can make almost any of the heatsinks listed either a super quite poor performer, or a jet engine sounding super cooling machine, all by changing the fan. whats more, not including dB measurements in a review of HSFs today is laughable, whats the point.
the real measurement of a heatsink by most enthusiasts standards today lies in a perfect balance of cooling+silence, do yourself a favor and read some reviews at silentpcreview.com, they actually know what they are talking about, and have some great recommendations.
119 pages... when it could be done in two or three...!
Not even the geekiest uber-geek in the universe would wade through all that.
No sig today...
I was going to moderate this thread, but I just had to chime in with my experiences with Tt's Big Typhoon once I found that it was rated so highly - I recently bought one at a local shop and used the included thermal paste, put it on my Core 2 Duo E6600, and did a modest (25%) overclock, bringing it up to 3GHz. The Asus P5N32-E SLI Plus board I bought was probably the most important component in the overclock, though. I'm a big fan of symmetry so I'm using 2x2GB of lower-latency memory at only 667MHz to match the 1333MHz FSB.
Overclocked, the CPU idles at 30C and doesn't go above 45C under maximum load for both cores as long as I have the case fans running. Needless to say, I was happy to spend $50 in the process of saving ~$650 on an X6800. Room temperature is between 70F and 75F.
I also have a Thermaltake Blue Orb (II?) on my older Athlon 64 3400+. I'm not entirely satisfied with its performance but I'm not sure if it's the fault of the heatsink, misapplied thermal paste, or ventilation issues in the case (Thermaltake Armor, yes I am a fanboy). It's idling at 48C right now with a room temperature of 75F.
I may make you feel, but I can't make you think.
Rather than suffer through more than 100 pages (WTF?) of advertisements and bad testing, I'd like to refer all of you to this simple page:
The Dan's Data CPU Cooler Snap Judgement Guide
It's about five years old, but the thermodynamic problem of removing waste heat from an object is about the same as it has ever been.
Kid-proof tablet..
High end users will find this interesting, I think.
Anybody got the pagecount on that one? 150 pages? seriously... I tested over 150 HSF so far; latest roundups are for AMD/INTEL's latest CPUs Roundup of HSF of 2006 http://www.madshrimps.be/?action=getarticle&articI D=519
Roundup of HSF 2007 P1 http://www.madshrimps.be/gotoartik.php?articID=556
currently adding 8 more to the list, closing in on 200 HSF tested; and all this in less than 150+ pages per article...
but I really thought that the title implied that someone was trying to put 25 coolers on one chip.
That by itself would be pretty neat, though.
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
There's this application that comes with gigabyte motherboards specially for newbies (like me), it's called Easytune5. When you open it, it has two big buttons, up and down. Clicking up increases clockspeed in 1% increments. I upped the clock speed on my E6600 by 15% using this method and everything works fine. I could hear no fan noise increase and I am using stock cooler.
Of coarse, you could tweak a lot more performance out of it, if you want to go mucking around with bios settings, but I just don't have the time for that.
Well, If you're like me, and appreciate a quiet computer, you'd see that after market coolers suit this need well. The stock cooler of my Pentium D sounds like a 747 when IDLE (and runs at over 70 degrees celcius) and if I start doing anything CPU intensive, I won't be able to hear a space shuttle launch two blocks down the street.
I never leave my computer on over night, because I wouldn't be able to sleep because of the noise.
Your wife has never been frigid for me, mulvane. She's downright hot!
Still, one of my favorite blowers.