Heatpipe CPU cooler roundup review - 1 - A Fivefold introduction

by Hilbert Hagedoorn on: 06/11/2008 02:00 PM [ ] 0 comment(s)

CPU Heatpipe coolers 2008

CPU Heatpipe coolers 2008 You know I got to tell you .. I have a bit of a soft spot for heatpipe based CPU coolers. See, because I think next to water-cooling, they really are the best combination of low noise levels yet offer very favorable cooling. The downside obviously they can look a bit dull, are often somewhat large for the more aesthetically focused end-users among us. But cooling wise, yeah these little critters are just great.

Over the past month or six several new heatpipe based coolers where introduced onto the market. Today we pick five of these puppies and see where they are at noise and heat wise. And I already can disclose this .. not one single cooler was doing a below average result.

So for this test I decided to go a little more extreme. We'll crank up the usual system requirements a notch by using a fairly high-end PC as we take a Core 2 Duo Q6600 Quad Core processor and then overclock it to 3600 MHz to see how well these coolers still do.

We'll obviously show you a thing or two guided with photo's per brand. Speaking of brand's here are today's contestants (in random order)

Noctua NH-U12P
Coolink Silentator
CoolerMaster Z600
Tuniq Core Contact Freezer
OCZ Vendetta 2

So that's a pretty interesting line of products to observe, monitor and test we figured. Have a look at the packaging and then head on to the next page please.

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GeForce 9600 GT - Galaxy Silent Heatpipe review
GeForce 9600 GT passive review -- Noise always has been an issue with graphics cards. The past few years however manufacturers has put more emphasis on cooling solutions that though are high performance, are silent. Every now and then however there are some companies out there releasing a product completely passively cooled. Today therefore we test the first in a two-fold of passively cooled GeForce 9600 GT products. This one comes from the lads at Galaxy, and is completely heatpipe based.

Heatpipe CPU cooler roundup review
Today we review five heatpipe based coolers from Noctua, CoolerMaster Z600, Tuniq, OCZ Vendetta 2, Coolink. Over the past month or six several new heatpipe based coolers where introduced onto the market. And I already can disclose this .. not one single cooler was doing a below average result. So for this test I decided to go a little more extreme. We'll crank up the usual system requirements a notch by using a fairly high-end PC as we take a Core 2 Duo Q6600 Quad Core processor and then overclock it to 3600 MHz to see how well these coolers still do.

Noctua NH-U9 and NH-U12 heatpipe coolers
A new trend that started over the past two years is heatpipe based cooling. Several advantages directly come to mind as the principle is quite simple. You move heat towards another spot other than the source. That way you can get rid of that heat not directly away from that source, yet effectively can cool it down optimally on location B. This means less resources and effort is needed at the original point of heat. The less resources I'm talking about is a direct active form of heat dissipation e.g. loud fans. More cooling these days equals more noise, and don't we all hate it ?