Roundup: Six Sub-$40 Performance CPU Coolers Compared
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Page 1:Big Cooling At A Small Price
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Page 2:Corsair Air Series A50
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Page 3:Deepcool Ice Matrix 400
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Page 4:Gelid Tranquillo CC-TranQ-01-A
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Page 5:Rosewill RCX-ZAIO-92
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Page 6:Xigmatek Gaia SD1283
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Page 7:Zalman CNPS10X Performa
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Page 8:Test Settings
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Page 9:Benchmark Results: Thermal Test
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Page 10:Benchmark Results: Noise And Efficiency
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Page 11:Value Conclusion
Corsair Air Series A50
Well-known for its quality memory and power supplies, Corsair has also been the purveyor of high-quality cooling devices for several years. The A50 might be its biggest concession to value, with a large surface area that hints at its possible performance potential.
Corsair uses a direct-touch heat pipe design to reduce latent heat, with a finely-sanded finish to maximize surface contact. Only three heat pipes are present, but all of these are slightly oversized compared to typical designs.
A 2000+ RPM 120 mm cooling fan, thermal paste, universal LGA mounting bracket, AMD mounting clip and fan-slowing resistor wire finish out the installation kit.
The I-shaped hold-down bracket is attached to the top of the cooler’s base using screws, reducing the effort needed to hold various components in position while thumb-nuts are installed over the LGA mounting bracket’s adjustable studs.
AMD users will unfortunately find that the clip only installs front-to-back, making this an updraft cooler on most motherboards. The preferred cross flow orientation is limited to Intel motherboards and those few AMD boards that have the mounting bracket turned sideways.
Read the article before posting please.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/lga-1156-heatsink,2535-4.html
That's why the same system was used for both tests. It's all mentioned in the article, too.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/lga-1156-heatsink,2535-4.html
That's why the same system was used for both tests. It's all mentioned in the article, too.
Read the article before posting please.
- Heatpipe orientation .. I know all about capillary action but since I don't know of any manufacturer that advertises/places the type of wick they use on the box of the cooler, believing that all coolers are the same and therefor heatpipe orientation does not matter, is a bit idiotic. I know that on a open test bed with the motherboard sitting flat/horizontally the heatpipe orientation isn't relevant but inside a PC case it might be .. and here is my dilemma. Did some research about this, but other then forums and "i believe so" arguments I haven't found anything relevant on this subject. The thing is I was looking these past few weeks at reviews for arctic cooling's 13 on different websites and even though the test method (and room temp)is slightly different from one reviewer to the other, the temp values differ quite a bit which is normal but the biggest difference seams to stem from it's orientation in a pc case.
Main point of my rambling ... since this is probably one of the oldest tech websites out there, could you bust/prove this myth? Get a bunch of coolers from all price ranges (i have a feeling that cheaper coolers would turn up a bigger difference in values that the expensive ones) and place them est-west and north-south inside a closed pc case. Run a couple of tests and gives us the results.
PS: i know that case fans matter but since most pc cases now have a psu mounted at the bottom and there is a exhaust fan/grill at the top, you could use that as the "standard case" for this test.
Great article.
I wanted a comparison between the CM 212+ and Xigmatek Gaia.
I think i'm going for the Gaia for its easier installation and to use it in a 2-fan setup with a fan that i allready have and don't know where to use it.
It would be even better if you added the performance of the coolers that support 2-fan setups.
Sorry, but the Hyper 212+ is too old to be part of a "new for 2010" cooler roundup, but that's why the link was provided in the article and the response thread:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/lga-1156-heatsink,2535-4.html
thnx again
funny
I can see this time you took your time editing it and the end result is excellent.
On an unrelated note ... any news on whether your "grumpiness" is improving or can I expect a "slap" for my cheeky comment ... heh heh.
Seriously, If this is the new standard required for the other reviewers then the rest (Bar Chris and Don) have some work to do mate.
Well done ... very well done.
Are you guys adding a "Coolers P/P rank" anytime soon? That would be so helpful 8)
Cheers!