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ARCTIC COOLING
SPCR's favorite Swiss cooling products company was on hand with new VGA coolers
and an expanded fan line. The new coolers, the Accelero S Series, are passive
heatpipe coolers. Very narrow, and very tall, with thin, widely spaced aluminum
fins, the S1 and S2 are designed to project far past the edge of the VGA card
into the free air space of the case to capture passing air currents. The documentation
provided by Arctic Cooling promises better than stock HSF cooling with zero
noise.
Accelero S1 & S2 VGA coolers.
Arctic Cooling is also expanding their line of fans with a new series that
features “Patented PST (PWM Sharing Technology)”. Taking
advantage of the 4-pin PWM fan control features built into new motherboards,
the PST system uses an integrated PWM amplifier to extend the signal from
controlling just the CPU fan to controlling up to 5 case fans. Could be quite
useful, depending upon the specifics of its implementation.
COOLERMASTER
CoolerMaster had a handful of interesting new coolers on display.
Watercooling isn't everyone's thing, but CoolerMaster is putting in a good
effort
with this self-contained system with universal CPU/GPU waterblocks.
The Aquagate Viva (upper unit) and Aquagate Duo Viva (lower unit) are CM's
new self-contained watercooling solutions. Perhaps the most unusual aspect
of the system is the interchangeability of the coolers for both GPU and CPU
use. This is the first time we know of that a single cooler has boasted a
mounting system and accessories that allows the same base unit to be used
for either application. Considering that new GPU's are likely to be producing
as much or more heat than the CPU in the system, this seems like a logical
development. The radiator/pump units can be mounted on a space PCI slot, or
in 5.25 or 3.5” drive bays. Onboard thermosistor controls automatically
adjust the radiator fan speeds from 100 to 4,800 RPM, depending upon system
temperature.
CoolerMaster's passive VGA cooler is featured front and center.
Also on view was CoolerMaster's brand-new passive GPU cooler. As yet unnamed,
the cooler, pictured here in front of their massive CoolViva Pro GPU cooler,
features a combination of conventional aluminum heatsink as well as a remote
heatpipe-cooled fin assembly for the rear of the card. More details as they
become available.
COOL-IT SYSTEMS
Specializing in thermoelectric-based CPU cooling systems for the cooling-at-all-costs
crowd, Cool-It is probably not a household name for those looking to build
quiet PCs. But they are looking to change that. For those not in the know,
thermoelectric cooling uses powered heat pumps to move heat through a heatsink
more quickly than ordinary conduction using the
Peltier effect.
One of their newest cooling systems, the Freezone, is being marketed as
much for its quietness as for its ability to cool CPU's down to frosty temps.
The key to the quietness is an innovative software control system that uses
“Predictive Cooling Technology”.
Unlike typical automatically adjusting CPU cooling systems that wait for
either the CPU or the heatsink itself to increase in temperature before adjusting
the cooling system, the Cool-It software monitors the loading on the CPU and
adjusts the wattage of the TEC units to maintain a constant CPU temperature,
rather than merely reacting to changes afterwards. If it works as advertised,
the technology should help reduce the changes in noise from the fans ramping
up and down by using smaller, faster, and silent changes to the TEC power
levels to compensate for momentary changes in CPU heat output without changing
the fan speed at all.
Peltier-based watercooling: The ultimate in exotic technology.
SEAGATE
With the exception their newly announced terabyte 3.5” drive, most of
Seagate's CES display was devoted to a variety of consumer-oriented hard drive
enclosures and portable gadgetry. Both Seagate and Hitachi were competing
for the bragging rights of having the first terabyte drives. While only the
on-staff marketing guys will remember who was first, the Seagate version does
have a technical advantage over the Hitachi, at least on paper: Seagate's
1TB drive is a four platter drive, while Hitachi is using five platters to
reach the magical terabyte level. Conventional SPCR wisdom is that fewer platter
and fewer heads equals less noise. Time will tell whether this holds true
for this latest round of jumbo drives.
In the mass of external devices one did catch enough of our attention to
merit a closer look: a new-and-improved Mirra. Internally identical
to the previous model, the improvements are limited to a new case and a new
version of the software suite. The previous case, which was apparently nicknamed
“the pig” within the confines of the Seagate HQ, took a lot of abuse
in our review.
The new case is custom designed just for the Mirra appliance, and promises
to be both smaller and quieter. The whiny 40mm PSU fan is gone, replaced by
a fanless laptop-style AC/DC brick. According to Seagate the new software
fixes many of the issues we saw with the previous version, and has enhanced
features and stability.
The Mirra has been given a much needed facelift...
...and both cooling and noise have been improved at the same time.
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