CPU Cooler Charts 2008, Part 3 - Are Box Coolers any Good?

[scoobertdoo]

part 3 yawn!
part 4 most likely more dumb reviews based on inability to install without removing motherboard.

 

[nubie]

Besides all of the problems with the review and the chioces, a major omission was made in bang-for-buck.

Case in point: I picked up a Celeron 430 Conroe-L pull for $35 and needed a cooler, I chose the Intel Copper Dual-Core Boxed. I have gone to 2.8ghz with no heat issues and could have gone farther with better ram.

For $10 I dare you to find me a better deal than the box cooler. It is pretty quiet too.

This was a fair waste of time, at least the other guys actually test the overclock achievable on a real system, the actual point of buying a better cooler (unless of course you are into ultra quiet PCs, in which case you ought to read silentpcreview.com).

Vangvance is right the reviews are seriously slipping. I remember when this was a professional site, now it is full of weird games and strange half-reviews. I would have recommended it whole-heartedly. Sadly I have to say that anand is my go-to, highly professional.

 

[TechnologyCoordinator]

Have you guys noticed the weird tom's [insert strange word] sities. They seem to be captializing on the tom's hardware name

Tom's Lawn Mower and Lawn Mower Accessories Guide

 

[jprevost]

I'm running an e6300 at 150% (2.8GHz) with the stock box HSF. According to the test, this HSF isn't good for anything. Well it's been over a year an no problems. I've left the Intel thermal analysis tool running 100% load on each core for more than 24 hours, no problem.
So call me crazy but something just isn't computing unless maybe I got a special 45nm e6300, haha.

 

[TechnologyCoordinator]

Tom's One-Hit-Wonder Guide

 

[snarfies1]

There is no part 4, is there. Part 3 was it.

 

[Grimmy]

Wonder if they fried the quad after all those.... "Lets see how hot it gets now." observations. :lol:. o O (okay.. I just couldn't say tests)

 

[night_wolf_in]

i thought this thread died with the big fail toms did. o well

 

[executor485]

Maybe I'm just missing something... But I havent seen an update/new cooler chart in over 2 weeks now... They havent shown any results for a decent cooler that average/typical users purchase.
When is THG gonna come out with the rest of the list?!?! Or is this just a failed project and they're gonna let the readers just stick with incomplete reviews and random BS?

 

[hairycat101]

I think this is going to be an incomplete review with a lot of random BS. All signs seem to point that way. 🙁

 

[executor485]

Does THG even read these posts? Or do they not care what the readers think?

 

[jwl3]

This is such a joke. An entire article devoted to stock coolers!!!!? Who cares????? Just list one of them as a baseline on your tests.

I can't believe this is the final article. I've been waiting 2 weeks for Part 4. Where is the review of the Zalman 9700? That's one of the most popular out there. And didn't they say they had about 70 coolers to test? They didn't test all of them. I am so damned disappointed with THG.

 

[Grimmy]

Maybeeeeee.. they are waiting on additional funds for more thermal grease. 😗

 

[jwl3]

Wait a second. This can't be the final series. Some of the cooler manufacturers they mentioned are not here. What about Antazone? Cooljag? Verax? Xigamatec?

None of these are listed here. They HAVE to have a Part 4. They said there would be 80 coolers. The reviews have covered 45 at most.

 

[Grimmy]

Perhaps when they requested HS from other companies to do a review, maybeeeeee those companies got to see the other reviews and thought... . o O (NAAAAaaa) will pass on that.

 

[jwl3]

I don't blame 'em. I wouldn't want to send Tom's my cooler after they ripped into the others. Especially if mine required removing the motherboard or if I knew that its cooling performance stunk.

 

[vangvace]

Does THG even read these posts? Or do they not care what the readers think?

Author is THG.de so I doubt it.

 

[executor485]

+1 on the Zalman 9700

+1000 On there "should" be parts 4 and MORE!!! But... Over 2 weeks later and still no part 4... That and the biased views on a lot of their products they review... I think I'm going for a different hardware review site... Someone who might actually wanna post facts, and in a timely fashion???

 

[jwl3]

There's a fine line between delaying publication to get people hyped up about the next review and pissing people off so much that they don't give a damn anymore.

 

[starvinmarvin]

This is yet another review/test on THG that has little relevance to reality. At best we see outdated or obscure coolers being considered as high-end performers. At worst, we see low-end box coolers for budget-price cpus being tested on high-speed cpus and then being criticized for failing to cool adequately! How on earth does that help anyone judge anything that is useful when choosing a cooler? Where's the good Zalman models? Or Arctic Cooling's Freezer thingy?

As for the box coolers supplied by Intel, I built a system with an Antec Sonata 3 case and an e6750 Core2Duo. Both are pleasantly quiet. Adding an EVGA 8800GTS 512MB video card increased the noise somewhat but, overall, the computer a soft whoosh rather than a loud roar or hum. Obviously, if you are not overclocking then, Intel's box cooler is absolutely aeffective reasonably quiet product. If I ever decide to overclock I will probably buy the Zalman
one that my friends rave about but until then there is simply no need.

P.S. My friend built a system using an Intel 2180 cpu with standard box cooler. He uses a video card with a big passive heatsink and the whole system is so quiet you must listen carefully to know it's turned on. Again, an effective and quiet result from an Intel box cooler, no problem.

 

[jj463rd]

I know a inexpensive way of vastly cooling a PC that's easily overlooked.Just duct a simple Home Window air conditioner and have the insulated ducting feed to the side intake of a PC case to blow in very cold dry air on the CPU cooler as well as the motherboard.
It depends on the BTU cooling capacity of the air conditioner but if it's powerful enough, the excess cooling from the back of the PC's case could still serve to cool a room during the summer time.One could also connect a bypass onto the ducting to cool the room when the computer is not in use but is needed to cool the room in warm or hot climates.
During colder temperatures you would of course want to adjust your air conditioner just to cool the PC without wastefully cooling your house.It would be a good idea to also use a very high efficiency CPU air cooling fan and heatsink in addition to this.
Since I already have an air conditioner in my house this modification would be quite simple and inexpensive for me.

 

[spaztic7]

I know a inexpensive way of vastly cooling a PC that's easily overlooked.Just duct a simple Home Window air conditioner and have the insulated ducting feed to the side intake of a PC case to blow in very cold dry air on the CPU cooler as well as the motherboard.
It depends on the BTU cooling capacity of the air conditioner but if it's powerful enough, the excess cooling from the back of the PC's case could still serve to cool a room during the summer time.One could also connect a bypass onto the ducting to cool the room when the computer is not in use but is needed to cool the room in warm or hot climates.
During colder temperatures you would of course want to adjust your air conditioner just to cool the PC without wastefully cooling your house.It would be a good idea to also use a very high efficiency CPU air cooling fan and heatsink in addition to this.
Since I already have an air conditioner in my house this modification would be quite simple and inexpensive for me.

DO IT!!! HONESTLY, DO IT! TAKE LOTS OF PICTURES AND LET ME KNOW HOW IT CAME OUT!!!

I was thinking about doing this with one of the in the middle or the room portable ac units. the only downside I saw to this was you have to empty the water from the drip tank. But if its a window mounted on, its all green from there!

 

[cbulmer]

I recently brought an AMD AM2 X2 5200+ and used the stock cooler. Stock, the processor ran at 2.700GHz, and I O/C'd to the limit of my motherboard, up to 3.017GHz, all on stock cooler.

Before overclock:
Max under load= 45 deg c
Idle = 35 deg c

After Overclock:
Max under load= 50 deg c
Idle= 40 deg c

All on stock cooling. I could have gone higher, but my motherboard for some reason has an fsb limit of 232MHz 🙁

Must have got one of the good chips and coolers!
Mind you, I had to RMA the first chip I got as it had two bent pins on it. Beware of Ebuyer!

Also, I think its to do with my system case. I recently brought a new one, an the temps went up by 5 - 10 deg c, so I went back to my old custom case and its a lot cooler. Think I might buy an Antec 300 case soon!

 

[Intel_Kop]

HI guys

Running stock cooler on E2180 2Ghz with 120mm coolermaster exhaust case fan:

35 deg C - Idle
48 deg C - load

What about sticking a better performace fan onto the stock heatsink?

Is this Do-able???