Can you explain orbs to me?

[Guest]

Orbs look very nice, but as I see they are VERY bad in reviews, worse than FOP32 and 38! They have a heatsink on the outside?? I don't get how they work...

 

[kanute]

They don't work =) The idea is that you direct air down the center of the orb and it flows out the slots between the fins cooling them. But as you have seen in all those reviews, the concept is pretty flawed. You'd need huge fan to get enough airflow over a heatsink designed like that. I think companies that make orbs are banking on the first thing you said when designing their product: they look pretty. For some, that's all that matters. They want their computer to be pretty to look at. Why do you think you can get a GeForce3 card in no less than 5 colors of PCB? Because people love pretty stuff in their computers. But that's just my opinion. Maybe someone out there knows a little bit more about the physics of the orbs and can explain just what the hell those manufacturers are thinking.

That oughta void your warrenty!

 

[funkdog]

Apparently from the reviews I've read, the new Thermaltake Dragon Orb 3 is a good performer, just above middle of the road.

Apparently they (Thermaltake) learned that their fans sucked, and went ahead and used some sort of 38cfm 60mm fan. And redisigned the heatsink part to a 2 piece pressed design. Finally if you want a cool looking heatsink, and a decent performer, Thermaltake delivered. Still not adequate for extreme overclocking, but should handle 1.2 - 1.3 ghz fairly well.

<b>"These are my thoughts, your mileage may vary."

 

[FatBurger]

GeForce 3's come with 5 colors of PCB. Black, white, red, blue and of course green.
That's not counting the many colors of heatsinks, of course.

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