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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."

10 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.

  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

  3. 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 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.

    2. 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.

  4. 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!

  5. 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 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.
  6. 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.

  7. 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.