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Twenty Five Intel CPU Coolers Tested

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the unseasonably-warm-this-year dept.

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."

95 of 123 comments (clear)

  1. I have found... by mulvane · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.

    1. Re:I have found... by toddestan · · Score: 1

      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.

      And thanks to that dual core Prescott processor, she sure has a hot ass!

  2. wow what a spammy site by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful


    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

    1. Re:wow what a spammy site by Game+Genie · · Score: 1

      Really? I suppose my ad blocker must be doing its job. Thanks for the heads up.

    2. Re:wow what a spammy site by hutchike · · Score: 1

      Absolutely. I was about to post the same message about avoiding the site for all those Google Adwords boxes, etc. I'm not great at cynicism, but it almost appears like a cunning ploy to deliver 1000's of Slashdot eyeballs at geeky Google Adwords ads and make a tidy sum on a Sunday morning? Hmmm...

      --
      Zen tips: Pay attention. Don't take it personally. Believe nothing.
  3. Ugh.. by ynososiduts · · Score: 1

    Wow, one graph per page. Why do PC reviews think spreading out the entire review on 20+ pages is such a good idea?

    --
    622677120
    1. Re:Ugh.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Sadly, you are off by an order of magnitude. This article is spread over 120 pages, with no print version available. I'd almost say that this is a record, but I fear someone will prove me wrong.

  4. Aftermarket coolers are useless for most users. by Spazntwich · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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?

    1. Re:Aftermarket coolers are useless for most users. by mulvane · · Score: 1

      Reduced power usage caused by cooler chips, not to mention thermal degradation over time (some people keep computers for a long time withtout upgrade) could be a factor..

    2. Re:Aftermarket coolers are useless for most users. by 427_ci_505 · · Score: 2, Informative

      I'm pretty sure they're using the same amount of power, but just getting rid of wasted heat better. I might be wrong. Does a cooler chip need less power to do a certain action than the same chip running warm?

    3. Re:Aftermarket coolers are useless for most users. by Netsplitter · · Score: 3, Informative

      A lot more people are aiming to have silent computers nowadays. While the cooling capabilities may suffice, they are very loud. Personally, I can't understand how anyone can be in the same room with the sound of a stock cooler, let alone try to sleep in the same room with one.

    4. Re:Aftermarket coolers are useless for most users. by Spazntwich · · Score: 1

      Even if it does, the swing can't be more than a few watts in either direction.

      Otherwise, Intel and AMD would release power usage under load numbers for various temperatures, and people constructing server centers would take that into account with their air conditioning decisions.

    5. Re:Aftermarket coolers are useless for most users. by giorgiofr · · Score: 1

      I agree that some people make an obsession out of squeezing the most OCing or cooling out of their computers. Normal people like me, however, like to have a silent computer and you just can't compare something like a Zalman to a stock cooler, noisewise. Besides, it looks good in my windowed case at LAN parties :)

      --
      Global warming is a cube.
    6. Re:Aftermarket coolers are useless for most users. by Spazntwich · · Score: 1

      Do you have any numbers for decibel ratings on more recent stock coolers and some aftermarket ones? I haven't been in the overclocking scene for a few years, but back then stock coolers were among the quietest available, short of going with the huge Zalman's.

    7. Re:Aftermarket coolers are useless for most users. by PhoenixFlare · · Score: 1

      Maybe I just had a slightly defective unit or something, but the stock cooler on my Intel CPU (Celeron D 351 3.20GHz) would routinely idle around 50 C or so, and hit 70 degrees C or higher under load, even running an ancient game like Starcraft - my fans would rev up high enough to sound like jet engines.

      In contrast, I swapped it out with one of the reviewed coolers (the Arctic 7 Freezer Pro), and I see at least a 10 degree difference (or more) in pretty much everything i've run since then.

    8. Re:Aftermarket coolers are useless for most users. by ben+there... · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If you look at the prices for Core 2 Duos, the difference between something like the E6600 and the X6800 is $750. Slap a $50 cooler on the E6600, clock it up to 3.2 GHz easily (~3.6 GHz max on air) and you have a CPU that performs better than one that would have cost you $700 more. You'd have to be kinda crazy not to overclock the Core 2 Duos.

      You're right that most users don't, but they should. It's a worthy investment.

    9. Re:Aftermarket coolers are useless for most users. by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      In the last three years, the machine under my desk at work has had its CPU replaced once, and motherboard replaced four times due to fan failures. It's a machine built with salvaged parts, but the CPU is a 1.3GHz Athlon, so they're not exactly ancient. All of these were stock fans, supplied by the lowest bidder.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    10. Re:Aftermarket coolers are useless for most users. by mulvane · · Score: 1

      Line resistance increases as heat rises. Its common electrical theory. That's one reason its good to use a large gauge wire and fuse it properly at the panel to decrease line loss over long runs with high power demands.

    11. Re:Aftermarket coolers are useless for most users. by Netsplitter · · Score: 1

      Actually I'll take back what I said. I just fetched my Code 2 Duo's stock cooler and plugged it in. It's actually fairly quite, although still somewhat audible since it's using an 80mm fan (or around that). Now, about those "back then" stock coolers. They were NOT quite. That's where my prejudice against them came from. I'm talking as late back as the Northwood Pentium 4's, since I never bothered with another one since.

    12. Re:Aftermarket coolers are useless for most users. by Kamokazi · · Score: 2, Informative

      You're somewhat right.

      But that article is not targeted at most users. It's targeted at geeks like us, who want either:

      a) A quiter PC
      b) A PC that will last longer because their components ran cooler
      c) People who stress their CPUs a lot and want to ensure they are not going to die prematurely (gamers and powerusers).
      d) Overclockers

      Also, why are datacenters and server rooms often air conditioned to well below room temperature? Longer life, true, but also better stability. See how long you can run Prime95 on your PC without an error. Eventually you will get one, and if you had the time to do some thorough testing, you would see a trend...the hotter your components, the sooner you would get an error.

      Something worth noting is major PC manufacturers rarely use stock cooling. The usually have ducted systems for CPU cooling.

      (Oh, nice job on including the obligatory slashdot car reference. While you probably would never see a difference between Penzoil, Valvoline, and Quaker State, you would eventually see a difference between those and bottom shelf crap oil.)

      --
      As our way of thanking you for your positive contributions to Slashdot, you are eligible to disable Slashdot 2.0.
    13. Re:Aftermarket coolers are useless for most users. by akita · · Score: 1

      The Intel stock coolers have a rather crappy way to attach to the motherboard.
      They are designed to be assembled without removing the board, but inexperienced technicians will often assemble it in a way is not really doing the desired pressure against the the cpu, resulting in over 50C temperatures in iddle mode.
      Due to this retarded clipping desgin, repeated removing of the cooler will break the clips.
      Give me something with screws big enough to be screwed with my not so delicate hands like those on the Tuniq 120.

    14. Re:Aftermarket coolers are useless for most users. by suv4x4 · · Score: 1

      Personally, I can't understand how anyone can be in the same room with the sound of a stock cooler, let alone try to sleep in the same room with one.

      Speak for yourself. I actually can't sleep with my PC turned off. I'm so used to the noise of the fans, that if exposed to complete silence I immediately get paranoias that someone's coming to get me and someone's watching me.

      But that nothing compared to the noise in my ears I hear without fan noise, from all the long ears of exposure to loud music.

      If anything, stock cooling fans are making my life good again, I'd never abandon them for a stupid silent aftermarket solution!

    15. Re:Aftermarket coolers are useless for most users. by raw-sewage · · Score: 2, Informative

      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?

      True, but some people (such as myself) have a different/additional obsession: silent computing. Stock heatsink/fan combos usually do an adequate cooling job, but don't necessarily do it quietly. With an efficient heatsink, you can often run the fan more slowly (or not at all with a low-power CPU) and drastically reduce the amount of noise coming from you PC.

    16. Re:Aftermarket coolers are useless for most users. by altanhaider · · Score: 1

      I've had my stock cooler die 3 times. And the one right now heats up and my computer shuts down.

      And yeah silence is a big factor as well.

    17. Re:Aftermarket coolers are useless for most users. by IMightB · · Score: 1

      I don't know about most geeks, bu I for one do not want a quiter PC....

      A quieter one yes but quiter no.

    18. Re:Aftermarket coolers are useless for most users. by drsquare · · Score: 1

      Overclocking isn't exactly easy. When I try to overclock my core 2 duo it just doesn't start up. It's not something anyone can do.

    19. Re:Aftermarket coolers are useless for most users. by cbraga · · Score: 1

      You're wrong.

      Intel's stock cooler makes more noise than a 747 on take-off.

      I tossed mine on the trash and put a QUIET cooler. I can even work now.

    20. Re:Aftermarket coolers are useless for most users. by Nimey · · Score: 1

      My old box: Athlon 2600+, Palomino core. Running Folding@home for a few days (in Linux) and it rebooted. This was a repeatable behavior and stopped when I quit folding.

      It was Debian, so not likely that an OS fault would crash the system.

      --
      Hail Eris, full of mischief...

      E pluribus sanguinem
    21. Re:Aftermarket coolers are useless for most users. by WhoBeDaPlaya · · Score: 1

      That's true, but please don't forget about the rest of us who like getting free speed increases ;)
      - Running a Core 2 E6420 @ 3.5GHz on an Arctic Freezer 7 Pro. Besides, you can sell the stock cooler (it's worth ~$5 - $10).

    22. Re:Aftermarket coolers are useless for most users. by balthan · · Score: 1

      Aftermarket coolers are useless for most users.

      And how many those "most users" read Slashdot or Hexus?

    23. Re:Aftermarket coolers are useless for most users. by Jugalator · · Score: 1

      I agree, and even as for noise levels, my stock cooler this time (with the Core 2 Duo E6600 package) was surprisingly quiet, especially with the noise padding I had installed into the case since earlier for an overall reduction.

      --
      Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
    24. Re:Aftermarket coolers are useless for most users. by Molochi · · Score: 1

      no

      --
      "The Adobe Updater must update itself before it can check for updates. Would you like to update the Adobe Updater now?"
    25. Re:Aftermarket coolers are useless for most users. by ghyd · · Score: 1

      A better cooler can also be set at a lower speed, for people aiming to a near silent PC.

    26. Re:Aftermarket coolers are useless for most users. by edxwelch · · Score: 1

      Depends which CPU the cooler is cooling.
      I have a E6600 and it's barely audible with stock cooler.

    27. Re:Aftermarket coolers are useless for most users. by wpegden · · Score: 1

      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?
      Just to set the record straight here, preventing the engine from seizing isn't the only reason you have oil in your engine. Among other things, the oil plays an essential role in cooling the engine. Engines do fail, and when they do, whatever the failure, heat almost certainly played a role. There are many different oil types for many different uses. I'm assuming you've bought motor oil before, right? The SAE-grade of the oil specifies the weight of the oil, and different weights are used with different engines. (Sometimes even using different weights for different seasons can be advantageous: a heavier weight in the summer when extreme temperatures would result in lower oil pressure, a slightly lower weight in the winter if a heavier weight would be unsuitable before the engine warmed up. This is usually not necessary in more modern cars, though.) Look in the manual for your car, it will advise you which grades are suitable for your engine. In any case, the point is that the various properties of the oil vary greatly with temperature, so that an oil that can adequately cool the engine at 200F won't do the same at 275.

      In addition to the SAE-grade, there is certainly a difference between good synthetics and dino-oil. In some situations, especially in extreme conditions like towing, etc., synthetic is more suitable, and they can allow for longer drainage intervals. Again, the manual of your car manufacturer should have recommendations here.

      Now whether there is a difference between different BRANDS of motor oil is certainly up for debate. Who knows---hard to say. But it certainly is the case that the motor oil is essential to the running of the motor, and it's a much more complicated thing than just "something slippery".

      Anyways, I mostly agree with the fact that the cooling modding stuff is stooopid, but I am someone who has had stock fans (not chips) fail (or get really noisy), almost certainly due to dust or whatever. Happened on my Athalon, my northbridge, and my vga chips. For the latter two, I went to passive cooling so I wouldn't have to deal with the problems again.
    28. Re:Aftermarket coolers are useless for most users. by PhoenixFlare · · Score: 1

      Yeah, no doubt that was part of the problem - I have 2 long-haired cats that enjoy hanging out around the computer, and they definately contributed some fur (though I did clean it out as best I could, and it did help a little, to be fair), but not enough to where I really felt safe with the temperature readings if I did anything but websurfing.

      I think it ran me about $30 + shipping for the new cooler, if memory serves, so it was easier than trying to futz around with the old one.

  5. Ad revenu by RpiMatty · · Score: 3

    Exec 1: So how do we fit 1 million ads into a review?
    Exec 2: 25 products with 4 pages each?
    Exec 1: BRILLIANT!

    1. Re:Ad revenu by sentientbeing · · Score: 1

      I wasn't aware of any advertising on the page.

      Have you considred using a HOSTS file?

      --

      ------
      beware he who would deny you access to information, for in his mind he dreams himself your master
    2. Re:Ad revenu by iBooks · · Score: 1

      The problem with this is that they assumed that ./ readers would actually read the article :)

    3. Re:Ad revenu by risk+one · · Score: 1

      Exec 1: But what if people try to steal our valuable pictures of processor cooling equipment?
      Exec 2: Think of the revenue we'll lose!
      Exec 1: We'd better paste our logo full size into the middle of the images, over their content.
      Exec 2: FANTASTIC! This internet stuff is easy.

  6. The Zalman CNPS series is nice by bcmm · · Score: 2, Informative

    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 /dev/mem | strings | grep -i llama
    Damn, my RAM is full of llamas.
    1. Re:The Zalman CNPS series is nice by ben+there... · · Score: 1

      Link to the 7700-AlCu you mentioned.

      I have the 9700 NT. Like you, I was concerned with the huge size and weight of some of the towers. The Zalmans provide most of the benefit of the towers (performance, "silent"), while weighing in much closer to spec. They also include the fan, rather than some of the towers where you attach a 120 mm. That can be good or bad depending on whether you wanted to install your own quiet fan.

      The difference between the 9700 LED that they reviewed and the 9700 NT that I own is primarily that the LED version has a manually-adjustable fan speed, while the NT is adjustable based on temperature through the BIOS if your board supports it. NT is also black instead of copper and nVidia branded. Both actually include the LED, which I didn't know until I bought it.

      I use the Zalman to run a 2.4 GHz E6600 at 3.2 GHz with 50C idle/55C load. It would be better with a cooler case than the Lian Li A05 I own. I believe the Intel whitepaper puts the thermal recommendation at 61C max for Core 2 Duos, in case anyone is interested. With the auto fan speed, it only ramps up the fans to 100% when I'm playing games.

    2. Re:The Zalman CNPS series is nice by bcmm · · Score: 1

      The 7700 has a somewhat strange way of controlling fan speed. Irritatingly, it cannot be controlled through software like some fans, but instead has a little box with a variable resistor adjustable by a little knob, with an adhesive patch to mount it outside the case. Maybe it's because it's harder to silence a pulse width modulated fan than one which is regulated by a constant voltage.

      --
      # cat /dev/mem | strings | grep -i llama
      Damn, my RAM is full of llamas.
  7. Something weird with their testing methodology by A+Friendly+Troll · · Score: 3, Informative

    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.

    1. Re:Something weird with their testing methodology by nbowman · · Score: 1

      They tested the regular Thermalright Ultra-120, not the eXtreme (the extreme is actually a bit better, and so far as I have seen elsewhere is generally considered the best air cooler around)
      the review sucks for a variety of reasons, they used different fans for every cooler (and no mention of how many CFM they push) which makes their cooling results useless, they did no noise testing, and there were errors in several places I looked (for one: the thermalright is listed as being AM2 incompatible, but there is an adapter for it) They whine about the difficulty of installing many of the coolers (waa, we had to take the Mobo out) I dunno about them, but I generally install the cooler when I am building the damn system. ridiculous metric to mark down coolers for, at least the way they tested it. then there is the wretched 12836521 page review that could have been shrunk to 5 or so, but I guess that wouldn't have been enough page views for them or something.

    2. Re:Something weird with their testing methodology by A+Friendly+Troll · · Score: 1

      They tested the regular Thermalright Ultra-120, not the eXtreme
      I apologize. As you said, there are 12836521 pages in the review, and it's very confusing... My bad.

      Still, there's not much of a difference between the Extreme and the regular version. A couple of degrees at most.
    3. Re:Something weird with their testing methodology by cheesecake23 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      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? I posted a comment to that effect on their forum. A staff member replied:

      Had the guys done noise, something else would have had to drop. Luckily they found the time to rate the packaging the coolers came in.
    4. Re:Something weird with their testing methodology by chromozone · · Score: 1

      I have a Scythe Ninja B because of reviews I read on silent pc sites. I have to say its very quiet indeed, and I have to put my ear close to the case hear anything going on. My temps for cpu are also much lower than with noisey stock cooler. I overclocked an E6600 to 3.0 and considered it a waste of time for my uses and went back to specs (it takes less than 5 minutes to get it to 3.0 again if I was going to be encoding or something for awhile). Having abandoned overclocking, I would still get one of these upgraded coolers for the diminished sound . As cited above, it is odd they overlooked sound levels because thats why many people buy these items.

  8. The Top 3 by creativeHavoc · · Score: 1

    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
  9. You might be a loser if...... by LibertineR · · Score: 5, Funny
    1. You use water cooling on your computer, and have friends with whom you regularly compare operating temps.

    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.

    1. Re:You might be a loser if...... by z0M6 · · Score: 1

      Well guess what. I use water cooling because of noise issues. now if only I could get my psu water cooled as well (I know about the more expensive models. yet those are outside my price range.)

    2. Re:You might be a loser if...... by LibertineR · · Score: 1
      http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8 2E16817203002

      Check it out, baby. Silent as it gets.

    3. Re:You might be a loser if...... by Netsplitter · · Score: 1

      I think you're a little angry because you could never overclock your processor an extra megahertz past stock. Maybe it was noisy in the past, what with those 9 fans and all, but now there's some very good technology to cool all the hot components well enough that it works passively. Of course, you'd add on a fan if you want to overclock it, and even then they run at inaudible speeds. There are heatsinks for your RAM now! See, 3000RPM fans. They do pick up a bit if you do something intensive, like play one of those fancy new games, but usually you don't mind if your CPU fan is going 300RPM faster when you have your headphones in, enjoying your lag-free, eye-candy-full game. Also, rearranging your overclock due to the weather is merely wise to practice, and it's just one of those things that come with the hobby. Likewise with controlling your fans manually. Oh, and this Hexus review is garbage. In case anyone was wondering, it's an established fact (in the overclocking community, at least) that the best CPU cooler on the market right now is the Thermalright Ulta 120 Extreme (yes, yes, I know). Of course, it's expensive, but if you want to pay for it, it's the best you can get.

    4. Re:You might be a loser if...... by LibertineR · · Score: 1
      I am overclocked with passive gear, but I used to be one of those 9-fan fools. Silent fans, psu, etc. No problems except maybe after an hour in Call of Duty with all the settings maxed out. And yeah, my psu has a variable speed control, but I just dont talk about it.

      I just dont want to reach a point where I know more about cooling down a computer, than about warming up a vagina. Ya dig?

    5. Re:You might be a loser if...... by Netsplitter · · Score: 1

      Actually I think it's a little sad that you're embarrassed of your own hobby. What's so shameful about it, exactly? Cooling computers and warming vaginas don't have to be mutually exclusive.

    6. Re:You might be a loser if...... by apharov · · Score: 1

      The thing is that these so-called comparisons are totally useless from a silencing point of view unless the heatsinks are tested with the same airflow. They are even useless for maximum cooling crowd because it is quite common among the enthusiasts to swap the stock fan for something more suitable.

      Check www.silentpcreview.com if you want decent heatsink reviews with comparable results. Their advertising is annoying but the content is good.

    7. Re:You might be a loser if...... by LibertineR · · Score: 1
      First, computers are NOT my hobby.

      I USE computers to make money helping Corporations USE computers to do business.

      We could just as easily be discussing which oil to use to keep a pipe wrench from squeaking. Would that make using pipe wrenches a hobby?

      Look, I just think we take these things a bit too seriously. Whether playing a game, or writing a proposal, a computer is just a means to an end, and something we should not become so enamored with that we blow good money after bad ideas, like nuts who put $1000+ rims on a $1000 dollar car.

      Yeah, I think moding is a bit silly, but nothing harmful, except maybe in the extreme.

      So relax junior, its an opinion, that's all.

    8. Re:You might be a loser if...... by boriquajake · · Score: 1

      Yes, actually they do. Have to be mutually exclusive, that is.

      --
      I only scored 35% on the Nerd Test, I'm sorry.
  10. Online "magazines" are going nuts by syylk · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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. Re:Online "magazines" are going nuts by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 1

      Ok, all nice and cute... ...But ONE HUNDRED AND NINETEEN pages to describe CPU coolers?

      Two sentences per page with the rest being ads... Any decent story would be that long at least...

      --
      If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
    2. Re:Online "magazines" are going nuts by Jeff+DeMaagd · · Score: 1

      This is partly why I don't visit "hardware enthusiast" sites. If you visit one, you'll probably find about five menubars, maybe two to the top, one to each side, one on the bottom, as well as ads. I much prefer the format of a paper magazine - there is one index per issue, paper magazines didn't try to put an index on every page, and every ten words is double underlined and bolded so you can click to get an ad that's out of context with the word in question! It's impossible to overstate that the vision of hyperlinks to everywhere has been abused. To me, it seems like a system of trying to extract gold from cow dung.

  11. Wow by OliverStannard · · Score: 1

    1) Make review span 120 pages (literally) 2) Put 5 flash adds on each page 3) Profit!!!

  12. Its a new record. by TechwoIf · · Score: 1

    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?

  13. How About Noise? by I'll+Provide+The+War · · Score: 1

    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.

  14. Chilly by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 1

    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.
  15. Aftermarket cooling's (non)impact on E consumption by CaptKirk3 · · Score: 1

    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.

  16. Page 115 by $RANDOMLUSER · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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
    1. Re:Page 115 by Chris_Jefferson · · Score: 1

      Most poeple don't even get to the first page of the article, and you got to page 115? Well done Sir!

      --
      Combination - fun iPhone puzzling
    2. Re:Page 115 by Mr+EdgEy · · Score: 2, Informative

      Some people buy OEM to save cash, and a cheap cooler helps them with that

    3. Re:Page 115 by $RANDOMLUSER · · Score: 1

      Well, there is a drop-down, and "thermal results" pretty much is "cut to the chase" on this sort of article.

      --
      No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
    4. Re:Page 115 by toddestan · · Score: 1

      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?

      Perhaps to provide a quieter cooler than the stock one, which isn't exactly quiet? I don't overclock, and I really don't care what temperature the CPU is at so long as it's still within specs and stable. I do care about noise though.

  17. Oil Breakdown. by LibertineR · · Score: 1
    Its a real thing.

    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.

  18. Noise by joeflies · · Score: 2, Informative

    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.

  19. Review packaging but not noise? by btempleton · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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
  20. Re:Why won't reviewers cover Thermaltake? by nbowman · · Score: 1

    because the quality of them tends to be pretty mediocre at best. PS, there is no goddamn way I am gonna mount anything near the size of that TT cooler on a motherboard without using a backplate. seriously wtf TT?

  21. What about dust? by justthinkit · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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
  22. Frustratingly misguided by Gordo_1 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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.

  23. Yes, I know, Kelvin doesn't go negative. by Gordo_1 · · Score: 1

    I meant -270 degrees C.

  24. Overclocking difficulty by CaptKirk3 · · Score: 1
    Anyone CAN do it, provided they attain a certain level of knowledge about A. How the hardware functions to do it's job, and B. How to INCRIMENTALLY increase the performance of the system (by tweaking of individual component parameters to affect the whole). Most of the secrets can be found in wonderfully written how-to's on enthusiast websites.


    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.

    1. Re:Overclocking difficulty by snuf23 · · Score: 1

      It was extremely easy on my Core 2 Duo 6600. Of course I have an Asus board that has proper settings for easy overclocking. All I needed to do was boost the FSB to get to 3.0GHz, 100% stable on stock air cooling. But then maybe I got lucky with my chip.

      --
      Sometimes my arms bend back.
  25. ONE HUNDRED TWENTY PAGES by kevorkian · · Score: 1

    Im all for site trying to make money from ad's, really I am. But 120 pages? LOADED with ads. Thats just insane.

  26. Re:Aftermarket cooling's (non)impact on E consumpt by jacksonj04 · · Score: 1

    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?
  27. Toothbrush by Tribbin · · Score: 1

    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!
  28. Saving Time (Spoiler) by DarkLegacy · · Score: 1

    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
  29. What kind of motherboard do you have? by Rob+Simpson · · Score: 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.)

    1. Re:What kind of motherboard do you have? by drsquare · · Score: 1

      I've figured it out now anyway, got it from 2.13 to 3.2.

  30. wow what a waste of time comparison by llZENll · · Score: 1

    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.

  31. ...and 119 pages! by Joce640k · · Score: 1

    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.

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    No sig today...
  32. Big Typhoon really is good! by dreddnott · · Score: 1

    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.
  33. a better idea by adolf · · Score: 1

    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.

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    Kid-proof tablet..
  34. Re:Damn, who needs this shit anyway? Here, me do: by Ant+P. · · Score: 1

    That last one looks interesting. My wifi/dsl boxes are using 30W and probably cost just as much. Can't do anything with them either since I don't want to brick them trying to install custom firmware or anything.

  35. interesting by webmonkey44 · · Score: 1

    High end users will find this interesting, I think.

  36. Sad Day by jmke · · Score: 1

    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...

  37. sorry, misread by bryan1945 · · Score: 1

    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.
  38. Try Easytune5 by edxwelch · · Score: 1

    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.