10 LGA 1156 coolers for your Intel processor

OVER AT Tom’s Hardware, Mr Soderstrom has rounded up several LGA 1156 coolers that will help you keep your Intel CPU frosty and overclockable. Noctua, Thermalright, Cooler Master and Scythe are big winners here. If you’re looking for the best bang-for-your-buck you’ve got the Scythe Mugen-2 rev. B, straight off.

Unlocking all four cores on a Phenom II X2 is hardly a surprise, considering the same trick was achieved with the Phenom II X2 550, so Anandtech has done the same to the 555 - using the right mobo - unlocking it to its full potential in BIOS. Not all are guaranteed, of course, but its sounds like a tempting $99 gamble.

Speaking of Phenom II X2, Legion Hardware has a face-off between a 550 and a new Intel Pentium G6950. It’s an overall tie between these two, if we look at performance and price. It seems that only the 550’s overclocking and unlocking ability separates these two.

Hardspell/Inpai has an in-depth look into the (mis)givings of the second generation of Hyper-Threading. It seems things did get better in HT2 but it isn’t all that hot as you can see when you compare a Pentium XE and Core i3.

Xbit Labs has dealt out a three-in-one review of the Cooler Master Cosmos 100, the Corsair Obsidian 800D and the Lian Li Tyr PC-X2000 cases. Corsair makes a shiny debut with the 800D while the Lian Li has the odd sideways protruding optical drive tray.

Tweak Town goes on an exploratory mission into the Sapphire HD 5670’s overclocking. The 40nm GPUs from ATI do come with some headroom for this. Shane’s conclusion is that you can squeeze some 10 per cent extra for nothing, really, so it’s all good.

Fudzilla also has a Sapphire card, the HD 5770 Vapor-X edition. Vapor-X has been around for a while and what it usually means is the same cooling with much less noise. €155 is a bit higher than most would usually pay for this calibre card, but you can’t buy enough silence these days, can you?

Bit Tech runs a story on just how good (or bad) is Intel GMA HD graphics. Simple enuff, right? Well, things don’t look too good when Intel is staring down the barrel of a loaded GeForce 9400, performance-wise. The ATI 785G chipset wins overall on power consumption.

Benchmark Reviews has a poke at the Power Color HD 5850 PCS+ graphics card. “PCS+” stands for “Professional Cooling System Plus”, which means, usually, Power Color’s choice of aftermarket cooler for added overclockability. The card comes out of the box with 760MHz core /1050MHz  memory clocks, although its pricey.

Legit Reviews has the Noctua NH-U12P SE2 CPU cooler on display. This is a revision of the original NH-U12P and a very competent one at that. Noctua worked out some kinks with the mounting and performance remains top notch, if you can afford the price tag.

Finally, Thrusted Reviews has a go at Scan’s 3XS i3 OC Gaming rig. Scan Computers is a UK brand, but it gets about. Not a looker, the 3XS uses a brand new Intel Core i3 processor on an H57 motherboard and ATI Radeon HD 5770 graphics for gaming power. All in all, not a bad machine, Ardjuna seems to have liked it. µ