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Written by Cadaveca
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Saturday, 18 November 2006 04:27 |
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Page 8 of 8
So, in the end, the Thermalright heat sinks win. I readily assume that the numbers I got could be lowered with the addition of a fan on them, as can be seen by the temperature increase when the case door, and the attached fan, were removed. We can also see that the active coolers seem to benefit from the case door being off, most presumably because of the airflow from front to back inside the case is already warmed by the hard drives, as well as the fresh air from outside coming from the door fan, when the case is closed.
Each of these coolers did a better job than the stock heat sink, which is no surprise. It’s not hard to find reports online about these exact fans dying, and ASUS readily replacing them. Which brings another thing to mind…the active coolers are hotter than the passive coolers…and for good reason. The chipset on this motherboard is located between the two PCI-E 16x slots…making it so that if you install a card in the uppermost slot, the coolers end up drawing hot air off of the video card. This problem is also increased when you have two cards installed…and could be good reason for the stock heat sink failing in the first place. Unfortunately I do not have any pictures to show this, as while I collected data I had a slew of hardware failures…including a good majority of my USB devices, and my camera. I apologize for those looking to see how these heat sinks mount…hopefully once I get a replacement camera I’ll be able to add such pictures here.
In closing, considering the mountings, the temperatures, and all the other factors, clearly Thermalright has done a fantastic job or bringing to market some of the best chipset coolers I have ever had my eyes on. From getting the packages in the mail, and seeing how well they are packed, right to the real stuff, and how they performed, met…no…exceeded any expectation I may have had. Whenever someone asks me on the forum about which cooler to choose, you can bet that it will be Thermalright I recommend …and no folks, none of these products were provided for free…each was paid for out of my own pocket!
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