10 Mammoth CPU Coolers: Size Does Matter

The Test Subjects In Detail

Asus StarIce

Overall Impression

Jet turbine: Asus' StarIce cooler

We already examined this cooler in a Firstlook article Asus' Big, Bad StarIce Cooler ; now it has to face its challengers.

The first thing we noticed about the StarIce was its design, which reminded us of a jet turbine. It is a giant of a cooler, with a height of 5.5" (14 cm.) The weight of 1.9 lb (870 g) is also substantial, and the unit requires extra care when mounting.

Asus was rather creative in creating the fan control. There is no 4-pin connector for the PWM mode on the new LGA775 motherboards, so the fully automatic control of the board can't be used. Asus planned for other ways to control the fan.

Front Panel for adjusting the fan speed

Along with the standard 3-pin connector for the motherboard, the Asus cooler has an additional 2-pin connector for fan regulation. If the motherboard takes this control - many boards have a Q-fan feature in BIOS - then a jumper should be attached to the connector, and the internal fan control should be deactivated.