Cooling Capacity
Visible ridges make thermal conduction from the CPU more difficult
Even at top speed, the Big Typhoon has noise emission level of 35.5 dB(A), barely above the room noise level of 33 dB(A). In other words, the cooler is almost inaudible. At full load the Pentium 4 580 reaches a maximum of 57 °C, which is a good temperature. At this temperature, the CPU doesn't throttle at all.
With a thermal resistance of 0.30 K/W, the cooler is near the head of the pack.
At $50, you can take home a good cooler at a reasonable price.
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