Testing

Now the part you have all been waiting for, the testing.

Tests for CPU Coolers are relatively simple affairs, we simply take the temperatures of the CPU while it is at idle (Having been so for 30 minutes) and while the CPU is at full load (Having also been so for half an hour).

To load the CPU we use a combination of Orthos Stress Prime - A dual core version of Prime which normally maxes out both cores of any processor - and Folding@Home in the background to pick up any slack.

The rig that this cooler was tested in is as follows:

Core 2 Duo E6600
Asus P5W DH Deluxe
Silverstone Olypia 650w
OCZ 2gb Special Ops PC6400
Spire Blackfin case with Noiseblocker 120mm's fitted in the front and rear; side panel 120mm fan disabled.

Results

NB. The "overclocked" setting is with the CPU at 3.24ghz and the Vcore at 1.475v.

With the CPU at stock speeds the cooler performs very well, giving excellent temperatures at both idle and at full load. The overclocked setting is not as impressive and I would not want to keep my processor loading at 53 degrees for too long. Indeed after an hour of gaming my PC locked up and quickly checking the CPU temperature in the bios it was in the low 50s suggesting it had reached higher temperatures during the gaming session. It looks like huge overclocks are out with this cooler, but medium overclocks should be sustainable.

Noise

This is where the Coolscraper really comes into its own. Throughout the testing it was almost completely silent, only emitting a slight, but odd sounding, vibrating noise. To actually hear the noise from the airflow you need to put your ear right next to the cooler, which is obviously not a common practice for PC users.

Cost

This cooler is marked on the Noiseblocker site at 50 euros; this works out to just over £33. This places this cooler in the top end of cooler pricing making it a difficult choice to see if this cooler is worth your hand earned £s.