Lots of CPU cooling to do for LGA 1366 or LGA 1156? Not a lot of money? We take a look at three sub-$40 CPU air coolers and see what we get. If you are looking for a speedy build on a budget, maybe one of our somewhat under-the-radar coolers will help you out.
Thermalright has been a company name that is synonymous with high end CPU air cooling for years now. Tuniq is one of the newer guys on the block when it comes to the elite heatsink and fan unit. Today we have a showdown of epic proportions, at least to the computer hardware cooling enthusiast. Propeller vs. Venemous X.
ZALMAN is back with a new CPU air-cooler. This one sports a plethora of supported CPUs, tons of heatpipes, and a sleek new design while not weighing in so big that you must be concerned about it fitting inside your standard chassis. But now days air cooling comes down to performance and cost with so many in the market place.
Noctua's new CPU cooler works with about any Intel or AMD processor still in use by enthusiasts, and packs a lot of cooling power into a huge package. Two fans, two columns of cooling fins, and six heatpipes are engineered to give the computer hardware aficionado more cooling at less decibels.
All hardware enthusiast and many gamers are very much aware of just how good Thermalright's Ultra Extreme 120 (TRUE) CPU heatsinks are. Contenders over the last two years have been few. Today the original TRUE vs. TRUE Rev. B and the TRUE Rev. C. Thermalright decided to challenge itself and give the enthusiast a better product.
New CPU coolers from Kingwin, Thermal Transtech International, and ZALMAN. While air cooling has gotten about as good as it can possibly get, all of these coolers bring something unique to the table. But do these units perform? We find out.
Thermalright TRUE processor cooler has been king of the hill for quite some time. Today we bring in four new challengers to see if any of them have what it takes to make our short list of coolers to buy for your next enthusiast box build.
Thermaltake, a leading manufacturer of cases for PC enthusiasts, is here to show us their cooler side. The Xpressar Refrigeration system is Thermaltake's first attempt in serious phase change cooling. This is a "micro" refrigeration system aimed at silence rather than balls out 24/7 overclocking.
We take 10 high profile thermal pastes used for mating heatsink surfaces to CPUs and other components and subject those to over 1200 hours of testing to find out which one reigns supreme. Drop or spread? And we tried American cheese too, just in case you find yourself in a pinch.
Overall, the world of air cooling has gotten to be fairly stagnant simply due to the quality and efficiency of the products on the market. That said, for those of you that are looking for good cooling that carries with it a good dollar value and some aesthetic value as well, there is always something new to look at.
Prolimatech may be a new name to many computer hardware cooling enthusiasts. It is a new company with a lofty goal. Prolimatech claims to have built a CPU cooler worthy of taking on the King of the Hill in what it calls a Megahalems. We see if that is so on a new LGA 1366 test setup.
Did you think that you already owned the biggest baddest air cooler in the world? Well you are wrong. Soon a few thousand of you will get the ability to join the Ultra Extreme Copper Club. Size does matter, and even more so, what you're made of.