Blogs Have expensive heatsinks had their day?

I've got a H50 in a case under my desk on an i7 920@stock and it never touches 60oC. Wasn't hard to install at all either.

 

Got an H70, which is OK but is rather too loud for my liking if I turn fans up. It does a decent job of cooling an i7 920 @ 3.8GHz, though. Having said that, if I want ease, I'll go with air cooling... if I want quiet and cool I'll go custom water. You don't need to spend hundreds unless you want to cool everything with water.

The all-in-ones that are proliferating don't impress me... the only one that interested me a little was the H100 and I'm afraid that mud sticks - as soon as I found out CoolIT were the OEM for the H100, my interest went out the window. Bit-Tech did a review of a CoolIT all-in-one where barbs snapped off and in the forum thread the CoolIT rep took the Apple route of "you must have done it wrong"... even if they've improved, things like that make me wary.

 

Icy? Defeinitely at 35°F – that's 1.7°C! Man, I want an air cooler like that

Air cooling is going to stick around at the low end for sure. Even at the mid-high end air cooling is just cheaper and generally more reliable (less complex, less to go wrong).

 

that motor REALLY hurts my ears... lets hope that is just an issuse with the prototype

 

A custom w/c setup might cost a couple of hundred quid, but you can keep using the same setup through multiple upgrades.
Also, this is Bit-Tech, why you we stick with an off the shelf solution? If in doubt, mod it!

 

I have a Dark Rock Advanced and it is dead quiet and provides excellent cooling....why piss about with water cooling? It cools my i2550k no problem at all down to about 32oc @ 4.5ghz and doesn't rise that much under load.
I bet more people still use air and not water cooling for new builds.

 

I have a Antec Khuler H2O 920 and its a great cooler, I have also had the H80 and H100 both have been very good up until the latest batch which has had some pump noise problems. The last Air cooler i bought was TT Frio and it will stay the last as im very impressed with the all in one water coolers and hopefully the next generation will be even better

 

i moved from an H50 to a Silver Arrow (which Bit never reviewed, boo!), and it's a nice decrease in noise and improvement in temps.
I have to agree though it is massive, and makes getting around your mobo tricky.

 

I like arctics line of heatsinks.. they were always cheap and did the job for the most part.. bought expensive sinks like thermalright- they worked well too.. but 3-4x the price they better

 

I recently read about a new design of air cooled heatsink the same size as a 'standard' intel but with about ten times the cooling capacity and near silent. Can't remember where though.

The fan itself was the heatsink, resulting in a very efficient heat transfer and minimal power usage.

 

Look above, the link is on the page

As for the topic, I doubt I'll ever change from my whisper quiet custom water. Because a watercooled FT-03 will never look bad

 

I can't say they're done. I'd say midsizers are gaining though.

 

Yeah I've heard watercooling at my friends house and it is so noisy. I think it could be quiet if it was done well though, like if you turned it to low speeds and then hid the radiator and fans behind a desk or something, it would be quiet and yet a bit cooler than an air cooler.

But on my last build I couldn't be bothered with the stress of it, so I just went with a "Be Quiet Dark Rock Pro" and it's great. Very quiet, good temps, easy to fit and no upkeep.

I'm assuming and hoping that by the time I next upgrade my CPU though, that there will be a really good water cooling kit which is better. Those Corsair H100 etc. are really good but still not quite worth it for me. But in a year or two I bet they will become the standard.

 

Stock 775 intel cooler on a q6600, 35c idle, 43c load. Why would ever buy anything else?

 

Ever get the feeling you might be on the wrong forum?

 

Do you happen to live in a very cold area?

 

I'm on a H50, 4GHz OC i7-920. Can't hear it, temps are all good, 100% stable. I won a Kuhler 920 at a LAN a few months ago, still havent got round to fitting it.

 

I don't think so, sure the Corsair Hydro units and their equivalents have made large strides but at the end of the day my high end heatsink won't ever leak and doesn't have a pump to make noise or to fail and provides better performance for the same/similar money.

 

nope, all in one watercooling is still stupid.
more awkward to mount than air
doesn't cool your mosfets
doesn't cool the cpu as well
has a pump in it (more noise)
introduces water into your system (more things to go wrong)
is louder
more expensive

all in one watercooling has basically no advantages over a good heatsink.

 

I've found that every form of cooling has a place, from cheap aircooled heatsinks to expensive WC setups, it's a matter of needs, desires, and ability. That said, all-in-one WC's place is a few years past.

Low level, low noise air cooling is great for aunt Sally who does video chat and emails. Like the rest of her machine it's cheap and reliable. The processor doesn't need all that much cooling, it's not very high power.

High cost air cooling is great for gamers who have a medium-high power CPU and a single GPU, but hate maintenance of any kind.

Custom WC setups are excellent for multi GPU computers, but they are overkill for any lower powered setup.

All-in-one WC isn't great for anything, because the CPU is no longer the primary heat generator, the GPUs are. AioWC can cool a CPU well, but all gamer cases have one or two fans dedicated to removing the CPU's heat. If the AioWC had some form of GPU block it would be a very real step up from high end air. It would be a good middle ground between air and custom water.