Keeping your cores cool
THG HAS BROUGHT on the first installment of its new CPU Cooler Charts. Following its “tradition” of testing and compiling performance tables on CPU, GPU anything benchmarketable, they have now started with the cooler kit. Part 1 is online, but it’ll be continually expanded and updated. They currently have over 30 brands represented in the charts. Amazingly, the quality control seems to be miserable on the coolers, as 45 per cent of them earned TH’s new “Failed” ranking! Read all about it here.
While going about our business we tripped on this here review from APH.Networks – Jonathan Kwan has gone through the painstaking task of testing a CPU cooler – in this case the Noctua NH-U12P. This can be quite a tricky affair but, done right, will provide you with much-needed info on the product – as is the case. The NH-U12P is big, but lightweight, compared to all-copper setups – but does require the use of a backplate. APH faces it off with a Scythe Infinity – another aftermarket cooler, and the Noctua really does outperform the latter in Jonathan’s test. Lots of details over here.
Laptop Mag keeps a constant flow of reviews on their site, and this one popped up yesterday – a Toshiba Qosmio G45-AV690. “Another Qosmio”, you say – yes, but it’s a Penryn and… surprise! It also has an HD-DVD player, and of course it is a 1920x1200 17-incher DTR, as most high-end Qosmios. Being specific to the American market, the AV690 comes with an HDTV tuner and a Regza Link (a software and remote control that’ll let you record, network and share content on your home network, including video out through HDMI). Interesting stuff…
Right now, and until CrossFireX materializes itself into something affordable, your best solution might be taking bits o’this an’that from ATI and slotting them in your rig in a Hybrid Crossfire solution, like the one tested at Legit Reviews. Actually, Hybrid Crossfire is proving to be an extraordinarily flexible solution for upgraders. Legit tested several combinations of the ATI chippery, all of which showed significant improvement over single GPU performance. Definitely worth a visit.
Overclockers Online are writing home about the eDimensional AudioFX Pro 5+1. A USB surround sound headphone with integrated 5.1 decoding. The ear cups do a great job at “insulating” background noise, and gamers will consider the 5.1 audio a must-have. They do say it’s quite expensive though – but like all enthusiast products, that’s a given. Tune your ears to this.
Xbit Labs is reviewing the DFI LanParty LT X38-T2R enthusiast mobo. This is not an amateur overclocker’s board, it’s targeted at that really small niche of geeks that are in it for record breaking results. It’s all about the BIOS, you see. Layout-wise, XBit found a fault in the tall north bridge that might block a bigger CPU cooler. The board is really for the ultimate overclocker class, they insist.
Silent PC Review have been pretty... uhmm… silent but they have now posted their latest work: the second installment of the Terabyte Roundup, focusing specifically on Seagate’s Barracuda 7200.11. This HDD has a massive 1TB capacity, as well as 32MB of cache. The drive represents some positive changes in acoustics, but the cache leaves much to be desired about when it comes to performance. Like Devon says, maybe they’re being too demanding, but it’s the industry’s own fault. Get your TB of storage here.
Logitech pioneered and everyone followed. We’re talking slim keyboards on the PC. Well Techgage has a duel between a couple of the slim-line keyboard contenders: Hiper & Logisys. Hiper opted for a more compact key layout, while Logisys opted for the full-blown, extended features formula. Both are very slim, as you might’ve guessed already. Tap away. µ
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Reading the reviews for a couple of the coolers makes me wonder about the objectivity of the site and indeed their MO. I have 2 of the so called failed coolers and never encountered any of the problems these coolers allegedly had. Go figure.
Somehow, THG.co.uk has had the cooler charts series since the end of January, how come the US site has only just published it?
The regulars at the Forum have basically ripped this review of coolers to shreds and similarly the author.
People still read that site? I guess 10 years ago it was cool.

Wow, and somebody needs to fix up the THG page at the wikipedia; it seems very polished compared to what should be there. Visiting the archive.org wayback machine should tell you all you need to know about THG intentions ;)
Minor point, but they state: "CPU cooler failure could lead to instant destruction of Athlon processors". Not true. This only occurs if the heatsink isn't making proper contact with the cpu core, i.e not installed properly. If the fan fails, then the cpu will eventually over-heat & crash. What happens next depends on whether someone is around to turn the power off.
Because Tom dont run or own that site anymore, hasnt for a while now. Its really slid downhill since he left, and took his integrity with him. The site is biased and in my opinion sold to the highest bidder or advertiser now. I quit reading that site about 6-12 months ago, dont even bother following links there either.
Toms tests are so incomplete its not funny,when they test the video cards, the always use whatever system is lying around, so you get inconsitant results. when they did the great video card test of 2007, many different systems were used, and would easily skew the results by +- 20% easily

in this particular test they neglect to test the stock fan, which would of just made all the test not worth it anyway, the stock cooler is just as good as all of those tested besides the water cooling, so I think they would of been under pressure to not test it by the manufacturers otherwise ppl would see they are wasting thier money
Tom's hardware changed management with in the past few years. Since then they have gone downhill. For instance, look at the gap between monitor round-ups on their site. Seems the only thing you get regularly are GPU charts these days. I've pretty much quit visiting the site.