Cooling

The Scythe Grand Kama Cross is a down-blowing CPU cooler featuring a large 140mm SlipStream fan, 4 copper heatpipes twisted to form a "X" formation, and an relatively small stack of aluminum fins. Does it have what it takes to compete with the big tower heatsinks?

The Titan Fenrir and Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus are CPU heatsinks with direct touch/contact heatpipes. The Fenrir with its thicker heatpipes and larger body seems to have the advantage, but the slimmer Hyper 212 Plus may be the David to its Goliath.

The Corsair Hydro H50 is an all-in-one CPU water cooler with a waterblock, reservoir and pump integrated into a single piece at one end, and a radiator that mounts to a single 120 mm fan placement at the other. It's a hassle-free introduction into water cooling... but is it better than a high performance air cooled tower heatsink?

The Prolimatech Armageddon hopes to capitalize on the greater airflow of a 140mm fan with a narrow, wide body. Its a simple design compared to that of the Coolermaster V8, with its sprawling jumble of heatpipes and fins. One approach rises near the top, while the other sinks close to the bottom.

The first heatsink/fan from Thermalright spinoff Cogage goes up against the Quiet version of the Zalman CNPS10X line on our i7-1366 test platform. Results are surprising.

The Setsugen is a unique GPU cooler that uses only a single extra slot and has a slim 120mm fan next to the GPU core blowing outward through the heatsink body below. We put the Setsugen through an arduous torture test. Can this odd single-fan design tame one of the hottest cards on the market, the Radeon HD 4890?

The Zalman CNPS10X Flex is a humbler, cheaper version of the CNPS10X Extreme. It lacks the nickel-plating, extravagant fan controller, and stock fan of the Extreme, but has an improved mounting system and steps have been taken to accommodate an extra fan.

Two-fan coolers have popped up here and there, but the NH-D14 is exceptional in being the flagship model of a manufacturer that specializes only in high performance CPU heatsinks. We sink our teeth deeply into this big feast from Noctua.

The ZEROtherm CoolMaxx 2000 is a deceptively small and light GPU cooler with high aspirations to match its $55 price-tag. To test its mettle, we put it through the grueling challenge of cooling a 150W Radeon HD4890 in an limited airflow environment.

The Nirvana is the successor to a fairly proficient CPU cooler, the ZEROtherm Zen. It retains much of the Zen's core design elements but sports a new look with nickel-plating and a frameless fan.

The Musashi is a long, slim, dual fan GPU cooler from Scythe. We installed it on an ATI HD4870, and put it through a grueling torture test against our old favorite, the Arctic Cooling Accelero S1. POSTCRIPT added Nov 29, 2009. See page 8 for details.

In our continuing quest for compact, effective and silent CPU coolers, we ran a gladiatorial roundup with competitors from Silverstone, Nexus and Cooler Master seeking to wrest the top spot from the Scythe Big Shuriken.

Big blow-down CPU coolers seem to be making a comeback, at least if these new models from prolific heatsink maker Scythe are indicative. The brand also has a reputation for very quiet fans, so will Zipang 2 and Kabuto jostle into the monolithic lineup of tower coolers at the top of SPCR recommended coolers?

It's hard to find an adequate, quiet CPU cooler that will fit in a low profile case. With that in mind, we accumulated a few smallish heatsinks and pitted them against one another and against some of Intel's stock coolers: Thermolab Micro Silencer and Nano Silencer, Arctic Cooling Alpine 7 GT, and Scythe Big Shuriken.

The Scythe Mugen-2 features design improvements, ships with a 120mm PWM fan, and mounts using a simple bolt-thru installation procedure - a first for Scythe. Multiple fans can also be accommodated. With two fans, quiet cooling performance is simply amazing.