Is This Cooler Worth It

[Livy]

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Onl...master_122.html (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Coolermaster_122.html)

its quite a price, but it look smart and its would be pretty quiet, im updating my computer and am probably going to get at least an athlon 2000.
is it worth the money or just get a standard cooler

[ilw]

i reckon its a bit excessive and pricey, but it does look funky and it is supposed to be good.

[balamm]

The idea is impressive but the ratings are not. - Air flow: 10.9 - 26.9cfm .

If they had one 25cfm to 50 cfm then I'd jump at it. Centrifugal blowers are a lot more efficient generally.

[ilw]

as u say blowers of this type are more efficient the cfm isn't always a clear guide of cooling ability because these operate at higher pressure and according to the cooling reviews it is a very good quality cooler. Plus its fairly quiet

[balamm]

Pressure would be a product of cfm though. Cubic feet per minute. The air can still only absorb a given amount of heat.

Higher pressure means higher heat, not lower. So just having a high pressure air flow without a high volume of air flow is of no use. In the case of a cpu fan, you want both, or just high flow with good direction.


Boyle's Law
( for "perfect gases" )
"The volume of a gas varies inversely as the pressure, provided the temperature remains constant."

This means that, if a certain quantity of gas has its pressure doubled, the volume becomes one half of the original. Conversely, if the volume becomes doubled, the gas has its pressure reduced by one half.

This law is based on absolute temperature and absolute pressure.

Absolute  Zero =  – 460 degrees Fahrenheit or – 273 degrees Centigrade.

Absolute Pressure is based on the pressure of outer–space being equal to 0. The average "absolute pressure" at sea level is equal to 14.7 pounds per square inch.

[3rd gen noob]

does anyone else find it odd there are no pressure ratings for any other fans on the given site?
there is only a rating for the fan directly linked to from this page

[ilw]

I'm just saying that cooling performance is probably more complicated than simple volume of air passing (and i don't just mean its also got a better heatsink).
To be fair its the only one where air pressure might be an important consideration, and i've seen other sites where pressure and cfm are always quoted together. If u saw that it only pushed 20cfm u probably wouldn't buy it, despite the fact that it probably outperforms pretty much any other cooler operating at 20cfm.

[ilw]

By design, a blower-style fan has the potential to produce more static air pressure than the traditional axial fans used on most PC heatsinks. Static air pressure is the driver that causes air to flow (it can be thought of as a fans discharge pressure). Just because a fan is rated at 60 CFM free flow, doesn’t mean it will actually move anywhere near that amount of air when physical objects (like densely spaced heatsink fins) get in the way and resist the flow of air. It takes pressure to overcome flow resistance so even though the Aero blower has a much lower airflow rating, it may actually move more air than a higher rated axial fan.

[balamm]

I'd still want to see a rating on the amount of air leaving the heatsiink, not just the amount of air forced into it. It's the escaping air that carries off the heat after all.
I'm guessing there would be the same or less with this blower.
There's also the problem of airborne polutants being packed onto the fins with an increased pressure. Which means more thorough and more frequent cleaning is needed.
If a drop of 5 - 10 degres could be guaranteed, then it might be worth it. ]

There could also be a problem with the opening of the fan housing being on the side and closer to the exhausted air than with a normal fan.
What might that do to the airflow characteristics inside the case ?

[Livy]

thanks for info, i was thinking about it sonce it got the little bit for turning it up and down, but i fancy an asus motherboard and it automatically throtles the fan. and i might just go for a retail athlon as it isnt that much dearer considering u get a heatsink and cooler and also a 3yr warranty

[3rd gen noob]

Originally posted by Livy@16 July 2003 - 23:23
i was thinking about it sonce it got the little bit for turning it up and down, but i fancy an asus motherboard and it automatically throtles the fan.
you can turn off q-fan/throttle cpu in bios for asus boards
mine is turned off now, for example

[balamm]

I got a 2000 running at 35 degrees under load with a thermaltake volcano 7 so I think it's not just fan or heatsink design. Good prep and maintainance seem to go just as far.

I also have 3 case fans pulled from old power supplies so that may help a lot.

3rd gen noob, did you have any luck with Cooler XP ?

[Livy]

yeah that would prob help. :) i got an old power supply fan in my other comp the now

[3rd gen noob]

Originally posted by balamm@16 July 2003 - 23:34
3rd gen noob, did you have any luck with Cooler XP ?
no, i didn't actually :(
my idle temp went up from 40 degrees celsius to 44 degrees celsius.
that doesn't sound too bad, however, motherboard monitor seems to read 6-8 degrees celsius too low when compared to bios temp sensors, so the idle temp with coolerxp is approx 50-52 degrees c

and with the current (very) warm weather, the idle temp has increased to 48 degrees, which really means 54-56 :(

thanks for asking though

[balamm]

Have you tried an alohol bath to clean the cooler ?
I had one go way up on me and there wasn't a lot of dust, but the thermal compound had baked away and grease from the air had pretty much coated the fins. It dropped 10 degrees after the alcohol and a very thick coating of generic thermal paste.

[3rd gen noob]

Originally posted by balamm@17 July 2003 - 00:13
Have you tried an alohol bath to clean the cooler ?
I had one go way up on me and there wasn't a lot of dust, but the thermal compound had baked away and grease from the air had pretty much coated the fins. It dropped 10 degrees after the alcohol and a very thick coating of generic thermal paste.
good idea
thanks for the tip :)

i've only had the current heatsink/fan combo for about 4 months now, and i regularly check for dust build up.
thankfully there isn't a lot of dust where i keep the pc, but i'll certainly keep this tip in mind

i suppose the easiest thing to do would be to buy a new full copper heatsink, as only the base on this one is copper. the rest is aluminium, i'll probably buy a new one soon

[lynx]

This is not intended as an endorsement or criticism of the cooler in any way, since I have no information other than that advertised.

However, it seems to me that by increasing the air pressure around the heatsink, this must automatically improve the efficiency of the device. Increased air pressure means proportionately more molecules in contact with the heatsink, and since forced air cooling is primarily by conduction, more heat can be removed for the same volume transferred.

Since noise is created by a combination of fan design and volume of air moved, it would seem logical that a design which is inherently quieter and at the same time produces equivalent heat removal with a smaller airflow would almost by definition be quieter.

I would suggest that this cooler is not likely to give any great benefits in cooling terms over traditional designs, but may result in significant noise reduction.