TheTechLounge - Recent Reviews: Cooling: CPU

Premium Socket 939 Heatsink Round-Up

Tue, 29 Aug 2006 17:16:27 -0500

AM2 has revitalized AMD's K8 architecture. Core 2 has spurred the competition fiercely. Socket 939 has lost its leg up. Or has it? From the early nForce3 and K8T800 chipsets to the awesome nForce 4 SLI x16, this champion of microprocessors has been paired with motherboards that have defined and re-defined out-of-box high-performance features, like early adoption of gigabit ethernet, RAID, PCI-Express, automatic and extreme overclocking systems, CPU throttling, hardware firewalls, and ridiculously comprehensive BIOS-level control, all of which are now standards of the industry. So what of the gains made by AMD and Intel's new offerings? We're seeing the streamers of change, but the real-world performance differences are still decidedly marginal. No one is about to set fire to his or her rig because some upstart hardware has shown up, trying to unseat solid computing. It's time to roll up your sleeves and show some steel, crank up the volts, and overclock. These heatsinks included in this round-up are the apex of air cooling. Which of them is going to pull ahead and give you the greatest advantage?

AeroCool HT-101 CPU Cooler

Tue, 25 Jan 2005 20:20:43 -0600

The HT-101 is an all copper, three heatpipe equipped cooler which comes with an 80mm quad-LED fan to provide airflow. Will this heatsink provide a good first impression for Aerocool? Does its cooling performance keep up with the looks of its flashy fan?

Thermaltake Fanless103 Heatpipe CPU Cooler

Wed, 5 Jan 2005 00:25:50 -0600

This heatsink uses a large copper base with six heatpipes to transfer heat from the processor to two large arrays of aluminum cooling fins and relies entirely on your case ventilation for air circulation. Will this heatsink be a worthy of your CPU cooling dollars?

Zalman CNPS7000B-Cu 92mm CPU Cooler

Wed, 29 Dec 2004 23:39:41 -0600

The Zalman CNPS7000B-Cu is a copper 'flower' heatsink that uses a 92mm fan. The 7000B-Cu is a slightly improved version of the 7000A-Cu. The 7000B not only performs a bit better, but the weight has been reduced by 18 grams.

Zalman CNPS7700-Cu 120mm CPU Cooler

Mon, 27 Dec 2004 23:44:09 -0600

The design is essentially the same as the CNPS7000-Cu, but on a larger scale. Sporting a 120mm fan and weighing in at no less than 918g, this beautiful chunk of copper is sure to have the ladies, or at least your processor, purring happily along. *Editor's Choice Award*

Cooler Master Jet7 CPU Cooler

Wed, 12 Nov 2003 01:00:00 -0600

If you want to seriously overclock your chip or your ventilation leaves something to be desired, then you would be better off with the Aero 7+. If you prefer looks over performance, the Jet7 is great.

Thermaltake X-Blower

Sun, 19 Oct 2003 01:00:00 -0500

At approximately $20, this package has a lot to offer. Purchasing two smart fans will run you the same price, but without the nicely finished rheostat controls.

CoolerMaster Aero 7+

Tue, 17 Jun 2003 01:00:00 -0500

Overall this is an outstanding CPU cooler. It performs better than the roaring Volcano 11 and looks cooler, sporting an innovative blower design. The 3.5" mount simply won't mount, but CoolerMaster is fixing that.

Spire Coolers AMD Heat sink Comparison

Wed, 21 May 2003 01:00:00 -0500

I would have to say the winner of the three is the Micro Flow II. Despite being the loudest, although it still wasn't that loud, it performed the best.

Thermaltake Volcano 11 Xaser Edition

Thu, 1 May 2003 01:00:00 -0500

The Volcano 11's name suits it well though. It's as big as, as loud as, and as heavy as an actual volcano. But, it does have a lot more features than most CPU coolers. Did I mention this thing is loud!?

Vantec Aeroflow

Sun, 27 Apr 2003 01:00:00 -0500

I feel that Vantec has created a good product with the Aeroflow that bridges the gap between having a quiet system and having great cooling.