CPU coolers - 36 articles

The introduction of the latest Intel i7 processors have certainly caused something of a shock with a TDP of a whopping 130W. Air cooling solutions have been adapted with dual fans, bigger heatsinks, and more heatpipes in order to try and keep the all important CPU cool. With Intel now revealing two new additions to the i7 range – the 975 and 950 – which run at 3.33GHz and 3.06GHz respectively ...

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CPU Cooling has advanced somewhat in recent years with many different techniques being tried and tested. A relatively new company, Reeven, currently offer two direct heat-pipe CPU Coolers. Today, we’ve been luckily enough to acquire one such cooler, the RCCT-0901S. Let’s see if it performs to the same specification of more well-known CPU Coolers.

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With the last CPU Cooler review here at XSReviews way back in October of last year, it was time for another. It comes in the form of the Scythe Mugen 2 which is a revision of the previous Mugen cooler and features Scythe’s new MAPS (Multiple Airflow Pass-through Structure) technology along with a Multi Fan Mount Structure. Read on to find out more…

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Evercool is an up-and-coming company in western markets that focuses entirely on ‘PC Thermal Solutions’. Today, we have their latest product; introducing the Evercool HPC 925-CA CPU cooler. Will this cooler to be able to impress just as much as the likes of many other tower-format coolers? Only one way to find out.

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When it comes to buying a new cooler you can be almost certain that most people will overlook water-cooling as an option. There used to be many reasons for this, such as the mammoth costs of a entry level water-cooling kit and the paranoia that accompanies the knowledge that the system could leak all over your precious rig . But recently the cost of water-cooling has fallen and although some ...

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With the increasing amount of tower-type CPU coolers on the market, enthusiasts seem to have entirely forgotten about the classic top-down format. So today, we’ll be taking a step back from tower format heatsinks by reviewing the Noctua NH-C12P – a cooler which surprisingly, uses the top-down design. Let’s resurrect this staple of days gone by, and find out if it can beat today’s preferred format.

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Beautiful and silent coolers almost always come at a price, be it money or performance you will never find a cooler that's a looker, quiet and performs well, all for a reasonable price. That said I have a cooler today that professes to have all of these things, looks, good performance and low noise levels. But is this all worth the price?. Introducing the Zalman CNPS9300 AT.

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You can see all manner of designs and technology these days on CPU coolers ranging from the weird and wonderful, to the more conservative and stylish. But it is the technologies behind the cooling that matters the most to any hardware enthusiast. One technology that has offered impressive performance in the past is the HDT design, where the heatpipes actually touch the CPU. This should deliver ...

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When it comes time for an enthusiast to upgrade his or her processor, it's usually quite a momentous occasion. Lots of planning goes into the perfect choice of hardware, and it's not uncommon for a cooler upgrade too; as faster usually means hotter. Therefore they usually go for something something much beefier than before – not one which looks similar to the stock Intel model. It’s odd saying ...

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With more and more emphasis being put on the cooling proficiency and the quietness of cooling products, many people are beginning to look try different ways to keeping their PC chilled at a reasonable noise level. One of the most popular methods is to purchase a passive cooler, I.E. one without a fan. But can these fanless coolers really live up to their fan-covered ancestors? That’s the ...

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As the computing industry has evolved over the years, people have begun to care more and more about what their PC looks like, as well as how it performs. But it’s not like what it was like several years ago, where the ‘cool’ happened to be flashing neon tubes and fans that glow various colours. The tacky disco era has moved on now, it’s now the age of pure quality that performs well, is silent ...

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Noiseblocker have created some pretty immense coolers in the past, notably among them is the Coolscraper series which combines high performance cooling with ultra silence. Now they've sent me the much anticipated Coolscraper 3. Lets see if it lives up to the high standard that we have come to expect from Coolscraper over the past few years.

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Scythe have produced some insane coolers in the past, most notably perhaps, the Scythe Andy. Oddly named, but whopping in size and surface area. Now though, they've come out with something bigger, badder and hopefully better; the Sycthe Zipang, its monstrous. With 12 copper heatpipes, and what is in essence, two heatsinks, I'm hoping for some awesome temperatures from this one.

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CPU cooling has always been important for the overclocker, but due to dual and quad cores it's becoming increasingly important for the casual user too. Water cooling and phase change are both great ways of cooling a CPU; however the extremes of these methods are both very expensive and can be rather risky. This is the reason why Air Cooling is still used today, though don’t label it as boring, ...

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CPU cooling starts with the stock HSF you get with your new processor, but these are loud and poor at removing heat from the overclocked silicon beneath. As a result, the consumer demands more, and the manufactures provide; mostly in the form of tower coolers. Today I have the hip-hop Gigabyte G-Power 2 Pro which features ‘atmospheric blue LED lighting’ and a 120mm fan. Lets see how it ...

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There are so many heatsinks out there that choosing your preferred CPU anti-perspirant is a mine-field. While it be component conflict, case issues or price, there are factors that immediately make some offerings impossible to use. Today I have the newest heatsink to fly from the R&D department doors at Noctua; the NH-U12P which is an amalgamation of several proven Noctua products onto a new ...

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Cooling for your CPU has slowly moved away from the bizarre shapes and sizes hoping to remove an extra degree or two, and shifted to tower coolers which naturally sit above motherboard surface components and provide much more surface area for heat to be lost. The ZEROtherm Nirvana NV120 is no different, and it’s built by a company that have shown their silent coolers to be more than adequate ...

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As everyone knows, water + computers normally equals disaster and RMA all round. But in some cases, the power of H2O can be used to your silicones benefit. There is a fine line between effective watercooling and relying on people believing that it is by definition better than air. Chilling by water is much more involved than a simple HSF combo, which normally holds people back from taking the ...

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Heatsinks for modern processors are slowly getting bigger and bigger, in fact many are too big to fit in a standard case. There is an obvious limit on the amount of metal that you can strap to your core before limitations creep in (motherboard component conflict, case size, weight etc.). As a result Thermalright have come up with the IFX-14 (Infernal Fire eXtinguisher) which not only supports ...

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While CPU’s are continuing to get more and more power efficient and cooler, the heatsinks that are strapped on top continue to get larger. The current trend seems to be large, tower heatsinks with plenty of heatpipes sending heat to the fins. Today I have the ThermalRight Ultra 120 eXtreme heatsink that features the ability to mount a slow spinning 120mm fan.

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Coolink have featured on XSReviews since 2006 and haven’t failed to impress. Today I have their CPU cooler, the Silentator which is a number substitution away from being Fatalonety’s favourite…

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After testing their heatpaste, we managed to get our mitts on a Zaward Sylphee which has a rather original design. Instead of one fan blowing across the fins, this packs two. That coupled with a fully aluminium chassis should make for interesting testing.

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Scythe have been making some of the best coolers around for a couple of years now and they have always been rather large and excessive; but very effective. Today I have with me something that is again, rather excessive and with some of the strangest box art I have ever seen; the Scythe Andy Samurai Master.

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We’ve taken a spy at ZEROtherm's GPU cooling range, and we're impressed; now its time for their CPU offerings. Today I have their range of butterfly coolers which may frighten the masculine but if their silent and cool well no-one will notice your lack of manlihood…

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Today I have the ThermalTake Max Orb in my hand. The ThermalTake Orb series comes in Ruby, Gold and Blue, and now with have the Max version which is huge. Of course there are a whole bunch of heatpipes thrown in too…

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Noiseblocker make a variety of products, though mainly focus on cooling and sound dampening. Today I will be testing the NB-Coolscraper 120 v2.0 which is designed to be an active cooling solution for your CPU, while combining Noiseblocker's love of silence. Lets see if we have a cool & quiet CPU cooler on ours hands.

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Water cooling has always been appealing to the HTPC crowd as it gave them a near silent cooling solution for their pride and joy. However, WC kits can often be ugly and bulky which means that internal kits are often the order of the day. Today I am testing the Silverstone Tundra TD01 which aims to provide an eye catching solution to silent cooling that will fit right in with your other living ...

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Here on XSReviews.co.uk, we have reviewed many Jetart products, but never a CPU cooler. Today I have a couple of their slim LGA775 coolers compatible with today’s Core 2 Duo technology. Let’s see how they perform.

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Coolermaster’s new range of heatsinks seem to be more modern pieces of art, rather than the standard block of metal most people stick on their trusty CPU. Today I have the Hyper TX which is one of the latest of Coolermasters offerings.

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For a company that has only been around for 3 years or so, Silverstone has certainly made an impressive impact on many areas of the PC hardware market. Today I am testing their Nitrogon NT06 CPU cooler. Let's see what impact it makes on the CPU HSF market.

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The AMD AM2 stock cooler leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to cooling performance and noise levels. So what are you to do with your newly setup AM2 rig, suffer in silence with your high temperatures and loud fan? One option would be to get hold of an OCZ Tempest cooler. Read on to see what XSR thought of it.

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Jetart are a reasonably unknown company that has done a fair bit of work with us in the past with good results; their graphics cooling solutions managed to destroy Artic Cooling’s attempt making Jetart the best aftermarket cooling for your card. Now I have the privilege of reviewing their second make of their external water-cooling unit; the AK2000.

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A quiet serene desktop workstation or a performance pixel churning cooling mammoth? Two extremes of the PC cooling world I know, my point being, can a balance be maintained between them?

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Over the last few years XSPC have produced some products that even the top water cooling companies in the world have taken notice of. However they have always been very much part of the single components crowd, that is until they came up with the X20 kit near the end of last summer. The guys at XSPC have been kind enough to let me road test this kit, and needless to say for such a simple kit ...

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Thermalright have been making quality heatsinks for awhile now and usually lead the pack with new innovations to make the humble PC users’ life easier. Today we test the SI-120 with follows their lastest line of ‘Light ‘n’ Easy’ products. Weighing in at 400g, it certainly is light, but is it easy?

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