A few weeks ago I swapped the guts of my computer into a new case (Antec P182 for those keeping score at home). The case is very similar to the one I had previously (which makes Joy think the whole endeavor was a waste of time), but the primary difference is that it has space behind the motherboard try to run all of your cabling. That’s what I was after because it makes for a much neater appearance inside of the case and as a result it allows for better airflow and therefore better cooling. While I was swapping everything out anyway, I also decided to upgrade my CPU cooler and add a third party cooler to my video card. Both of the coolers are from Thermalright, and they are both pretty large pieces with multiple heatpipes and lots of fins. The CPU cooler in combination with the new case lowered my CPU temperatures by another 12 degrees or so, which is great. The pictures that follow will likely only appeal to fellow computer geeky people or other people who like to go a little overboard on things.
New Coolers:
CPU Cooler Closeup:
Full Motherboard:
Oooooo nice Motherboard!!! ;)
P.S. The case is pretty much exactly the same but we can pretend like it is different if you like!
Comment by Joy — August 5, 2007 @ 8:30 pm
12 degree differece is pretty impressive! How loud is that thing? I’ve had my eye on a big phat heatsink like that, need something to replace the highly efficient but highly noisy dealie I have now.
Comment by Jeremy — August 19, 2007 @ 3:57 pm
Jeremy,
The CPU cooler doesn’t come with the fan, so you can put whatever 120mm fan you want on it. I chose one from Scythe (and actually all of the fans in the case are Scythe fans), and it’s awfully quiet. I have 5 Scythe SFF21E’s total in my case (one is on the CPU heatsink), and one smaller Scythe fan on the video card heatsink. Scythe has series of fans (D-F) that trade off CFM for noise level, so you can choose what suits you.
I was using the Arctic Cooling Freezer Pro 7 before this cooler, and it was louder and didn’t cool as well. The other things that makes it quieter now (at least to me) is that I have the Scythe fan on the CPU heatsink running full speed all the time (since it’s so quiet), and so you don’t have the fan spinning up and slowing down with the CPU load, which means it draws less attention to itself. Sometimes it’s the the change in pitch of the fan noise as it speeds up and slows back down that’s more annoying than the noise itself (my machine at work is like that).
Comment by Brad — August 19, 2007 @ 8:22 pm