Have expensive heatsinks had their day?
Posted on 29th Jun 2012 at 09:09 by Antony Leather with 55 comments
In the last couple of years, water-cooling has made some serious leaps in usability and value. Sadly we’re not referring to custom water-cooling kits here, although the number of off-the-shelf components that are available now if you’re building your own system is staggering. No, we’re talking about all-in-one liquid coolers such as Antec’s Kühler H2O 920 and Corsair’s H80.
Even just a few years ago, all-in-one liquid coolers invariably performed worse than decent air coolers. In some cases they were a lot worse and represented very poor value for money and were little more than a quick and easy way of being able to claim your PC was water-cooled. Internal units in particular used lowly pumps and radiators that were skinnier than an anorexic beanpole.
Cool IT led the way with its Eco and Domino coolers, along with Asetek, whose efforts were also sold by Corsair in the form of the H50 and H70. All of a sudden, we had affordable units that could be fitted in most cases with rear or roof 120mm fan mounts close to the CPU socket. More importantly, they offered cooling as good, if not better than the preferred air coolers of the time.
The latest generation have made even bigger waves. They are now the coolers of choice in mid and high-end PCs – something we’ve never seen before. Not only this but they’re easy to install, have no issues fitting in a vast majority of standard-layout tower cases and out-perform anything that air cooling can throw at them. Corsair’s H100 especially is very quiet too yet despite being the most expensive all-in-one liquid cooler around at the moment. It costs half the price of all the gear you’d need to make a similar custom water-cooling kit.
With air coolers such as Be Quiet’s Dark Rock Pro and Prolimatech’s Genesis costing upwards of £55, we’re finally able to ask a very interesting question. If you’re spending more than £40 on a CPU cooler, is air cooling even worth a look? This question is particularly important when you consider that many cheaper air coolers, in particular Arctic’s Freezer i30, perform as well as these monstrosities. Smaller coolers and all-in-one liquid coolers are invariably far easier to fit too, so why on earth would you spend more on a large heatsink?
There are a couple of reasons, but we’d be interested to hear your opinions too. Firstly, there’s noise. Smaller air coolers are invariably nosier due to the fact they need more airflow to deal with the same amount of heat. As they’re so large, air coolers such as the Be Quiet Dark Rock Pro can afford to use 120mm or even 140mm slow spinning fans but still offer excellent cooling. The Dark Rock Pro is able to match the likes of the Corsair H100 and H80 at similar noise levels in some of our tests, meaning that if your primary objective is noise reduction, it isn’t a totally unattractive options as it’s still noticeably cheaper than the better all-in-one’s.
Secondly, there are cases where the fan mounts are simply too far away from the CPU socket for the tubing to allow you mount the radiator. In this situation, you can either mod the cooler (extending the tubing is actually a fairly popular mod) or of course opt for a decent air cooler if you don’t want to splash the cash on a custom water-cooling kit.
However, for the overclocking enthusiast, all-in-one liquid coolers have an additional trick up their sleeve. Corsair’s H80 and H100 have three fan speed settings, while Antec’s Kühler H2O 920 goes one step further and offers fully-programmable software to fine-tune its fans. For owners of the Be Quiet Dark Rock Pro, you’re stuck with silent mode and nothing short of swapping the fans will give you better cooling should you want to an afternoon of overclocking and benchmarking.
In any event, some of us are less phased by the din of noisy fans and would be quite happy to set the H80, for example, to its medium or full speed fan settings. While we haven’t got round to testing some of Corsair’s cheaper all-in-one offerings, even if they’re within 10-20 per cent of the more expensive models cooling-wise, they’d still make tempting alternatives to equivalently-priced air coolers.
It’s a tricky one to call, although for the time being, in the sub £40 bracket, its difficult to see anything providing the humble heatsink with much competition for now. We thought SSDs would kill hard disks a long time ago, but their prices prevented this war from kicking off until recently when we finally saw decent 512GB SSDs retail for less than £300. With large air coolers, there will always be people who prefer air cooling too.
However, if and when the likes of Corsair and Antec release their next generation all-in-one coolers, if they’re cheaper or better than their predecessors, I’d be very worried if I was in the air cooling market.
Do you think the days of large air coolers are numbered? Let us know in the comments...
Even just a few years ago, all-in-one liquid coolers invariably performed worse than decent air coolers. In some cases they were a lot worse and represented very poor value for money and were little more than a quick and easy way of being able to claim your PC was water-cooled. Internal units in particular used lowly pumps and radiators that were skinnier than an anorexic beanpole.
Cool IT led the way with its Eco and Domino coolers, along with Asetek, whose efforts were also sold by Corsair in the form of the H50 and H70. All of a sudden, we had affordable units that could be fitted in most cases with rear or roof 120mm fan mounts close to the CPU socket. More importantly, they offered cooling as good, if not better than the preferred air coolers of the time.
All-in-one liquid coolers such as Corsair's H100 (pictured) and the cheaper H80, don't cost much more than large heatsinks
The latest generation have made even bigger waves. They are now the coolers of choice in mid and high-end PCs – something we’ve never seen before. Not only this but they’re easy to install, have no issues fitting in a vast majority of standard-layout tower cases and out-perform anything that air cooling can throw at them. Corsair’s H100 especially is very quiet too yet despite being the most expensive all-in-one liquid cooler around at the moment. It costs half the price of all the gear you’d need to make a similar custom water-cooling kit.
With air coolers such as Be Quiet’s Dark Rock Pro and Prolimatech’s Genesis costing upwards of £55, we’re finally able to ask a very interesting question. If you’re spending more than £40 on a CPU cooler, is air cooling even worth a look? This question is particularly important when you consider that many cheaper air coolers, in particular Arctic’s Freezer i30, perform as well as these monstrosities. Smaller coolers and all-in-one liquid coolers are invariably far easier to fit too, so why on earth would you spend more on a large heatsink?
Click to enlarge - Large heatsinks such as Be Quiet's Dark Rock Pro offer great cooling and low noise but they're as expensive as all-in-one liquid coolers that are often just as quiet and offer even better cooling
There are a couple of reasons, but we’d be interested to hear your opinions too. Firstly, there’s noise. Smaller air coolers are invariably nosier due to the fact they need more airflow to deal with the same amount of heat. As they’re so large, air coolers such as the Be Quiet Dark Rock Pro can afford to use 120mm or even 140mm slow spinning fans but still offer excellent cooling. The Dark Rock Pro is able to match the likes of the Corsair H100 and H80 at similar noise levels in some of our tests, meaning that if your primary objective is noise reduction, it isn’t a totally unattractive options as it’s still noticeably cheaper than the better all-in-one’s.
Secondly, there are cases where the fan mounts are simply too far away from the CPU socket for the tubing to allow you mount the radiator. In this situation, you can either mod the cooler (extending the tubing is actually a fairly popular mod) or of course opt for a decent air cooler if you don’t want to splash the cash on a custom water-cooling kit.
Click to enlarge - The Freezer i30 strikes a good balance between size, cooling and price
However, for the overclocking enthusiast, all-in-one liquid coolers have an additional trick up their sleeve. Corsair’s H80 and H100 have three fan speed settings, while Antec’s Kühler H2O 920 goes one step further and offers fully-programmable software to fine-tune its fans. For owners of the Be Quiet Dark Rock Pro, you’re stuck with silent mode and nothing short of swapping the fans will give you better cooling should you want to an afternoon of overclocking and benchmarking.
In any event, some of us are less phased by the din of noisy fans and would be quite happy to set the H80, for example, to its medium or full speed fan settings. While we haven’t got round to testing some of Corsair’s cheaper all-in-one offerings, even if they’re within 10-20 per cent of the more expensive models cooling-wise, they’d still make tempting alternatives to equivalently-priced air coolers.
Click to enlarge - Antec's Kühler H2O 920 offers software fan speed control as well as awesome cooling for just £70
It’s a tricky one to call, although for the time being, in the sub £40 bracket, its difficult to see anything providing the humble heatsink with much competition for now. We thought SSDs would kill hard disks a long time ago, but their prices prevented this war from kicking off until recently when we finally saw decent 512GB SSDs retail for less than £300. With large air coolers, there will always be people who prefer air cooling too.
However, if and when the likes of Corsair and Antec release their next generation all-in-one coolers, if they’re cheaper or better than their predecessors, I’d be very worried if I was in the air cooling market.
Do you think the days of large air coolers are numbered? Let us know in the comments...
55 Comments
Discuss in the forums ReplyAnd what more could I ask for? Temperatures stay at extremely low delta even with a moderate 4.4GHz OC on an i5-2500K, and the most impressive part is that it does it with a whisper.
With a fan controller as well, the noise levels are very low.
Why would I switch from the one heat-sink I've had for years, that so far fits every system and beat every other cooler....and cost £15.00 second hand!
Because they're not. Unless your hearing is as bad as a half-deaf 80 year old man.
"Oh but they can be made quiet" you say? Yes, of course. You can lower the pump's voltage and use lower RPM fans, and they'll be quiet-ish. But they'll also have a piss-poor performance worse than any decent air cooler.
So, no, 'expensive' heatsinks have not had their day. And when they do get pushed aside, trust me, it won't be because of AIO watercooling units.
The GPU however does make a noticeable noise.
What CPU and temperatures?
I've never had an issue with the pump noise on the few units I've tried, and using different fans on a cooler is far from unheard of. Performance wise, they've always been good for me over a variety of chips.
I think they're very good, they allow better performance in smaller cases a lot of the time (I used a H70 in a PC-Q08)
Additionally, the mounting of the both mentioned products are total rubbish. I had to throw away the H60 because the cooler doesn't attach correctly to the CPU and has a gap of around 1mm even if the screws are tightened to max. The H50 was a PITA to install and seeing that the Antec Kühler uses this mounting-system too I wouldn't ever recommend any of the current factory-sealed all-in-one water-coolers.
With CPUs getting more efficient - Ivy Bridge i5-3570k only has 77W TDP whereas the i5-760 had 95W TDP - it's a waste of money and efforts to go for watercooling imho. My Samuel 17 + Apache Black has no issues cooling my i5-760 silently at stockspeeds, even when I run Prime95 for half an hour, and I mind you that the Samuel 17 is a rather small topblower. With a 120mm tower-cooler there would even be less issues.
I'm upgrading to the 1156 Ivy Bridge soon, and then my Apache Black won't even spin up beyond 600RPM when surfin the net I guess, because the TDP of the Ivy Bridge i5-CPUs is only around 65W when you disable the IGP.
Expensive heatsinks have had their day because the new intel CPUs have such low TDP that you can passively cool them with a 120mm tower-cooler under load with good airflow in the case.
Cooling is only an issue with current GPUs, but if the rumors about the GTX660 stay true, then we'll see a GPU with only 100W TDP within range of the performance of a 7850.
Soon a medium-priced gaming-rig (Ivy Bridge I5 + GTX660 or the like) will draw less then 200 Watts under load. Cooling these systems will be totally easy with aircoolers and noise will no more be an issue aswell.
Also, If your spending $1500 - $2000 USA (more in the UK because of the VAT tax) do you really want to expose your expensive components to high heat? Isn't it worth the extra $50 - $70 to provide "insurance" to keep your components extra cool?
That was my reasoning for buying the Noctua NH-D14 for my 2600K rig even though I do not need to overclock. No component in my computer gets above 35F except the sound card which runs at 59F. Everything is icy cool and that was worth the extra $50 for me. I couldn't be happier with my D-14
There will always be situations where WC isn't practical or impossible -- case size restraints are one issue. Additionally, a lot of users aren't all that fond of the idea of WC, although this may be mitigated somewhat with sealed low maintenance kits.
However, the main reasons why I love my H70 is ease of use (when swapping systems), low noise and most off all: a clean and nice appearance. Most air coolers are either plain ugly or take up way to much space. I don't like to watch at a big brick in my system...
Of course custom watercooling is better in all aspects, visual and performance wise. But it costs a fortune compared to something like an H70. I got it for 35, a 2 year used one. It is still silent and fully functional and got 3 years warranty left. Even at full price it's simply good value if you do not only look at benchmark performance. ;-)
The Sandia Cooler: http://www.legitreviews.com/news/13508/
I don't think size is the issue - there are plenty of air coolers that dwarf single rad sealed kits these days. The price point is the key, IMO. Arctic Cooling showed us how to produce a low cost, effective and universally endorsed HSF. Granted, with increased heat density, HSF have to improve to keep up - increasing r&d costs and eventually costing more on the shelf.
However, £12 for a freezer 7 pro then suddenly £50-£70 for a modern high end HSF is taking it a bit too far. I'm a WC fanboy so I'm biased but, at that price point, I'd take a sealed unit any day; as there are very very few high end HSFs that warrant their price tag.
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
Also, this is Bit-Tech, why you we stick with an off the shelf solution? If in doubt, mod it!
I bet more people still use air and not water cooling for new builds.
I have to agree though it is massive, and makes getting around your mobo tricky.
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 :D
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.
Ever get the feeling you might be on the wrong forum?
Do you happen to live in a very cold area?
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.
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.
The above quote is what I will do next build. I thought expensive air cooling had its day when £40 AMD heatsinks started winning prizes in the mag. That money kitted out the rest of two PC cases with fans last build, separate to the HSFs.
For watercooling, that's a much wider area so naturally there would be a larger spread of prices, so if you got the right mix, you wouldn't feel like it was a ripoff as £40 AMD air coolers do for me. Let's face it we're talking about a difference in clip assembly for AMD sockets, Artic Cooling don't charge a premium because they want everyone to be able to buy the same box.
My computer (Dual Opteron 250 desktop) is a multi-purpose machine, and one if it's purposes is sometimes as a clothing rack. I've noticed that when it's covered with clothes it gets a LOT warmer, despite the fans not being blocked. Apparently, a fair bit of the cooling is through radiation from the case rather than just convection from the fans. I haven't seen any measurements as to how great of an effect this is, but it does make me wonder if designing a case to radiate heat more efficiently could reduce the amount of air required and hence fan noise.
as for advantages
wieght on board for one, most pcs never leave the house i get that but if your into lann gaming then your pc moves around a good deal more and chugging around a 1kg wieght on your board is not something id personally like to do.
Much easier install,
They are not cheaper but they are comparable
h60 is about £53
be quiet dark rock pro is £52
( prices taking from scan )
in ivy bridge testing ( which is the where things should be tested )
both are above 90c thermal cealing so niether can cut it at the overclocks that were tested
4.7ghz 1.3vcore temps ( review from www.kitguru.net)
h60 92c
dark rock pro 92c
all fans where set to max for the test
so your general person would be seeing over 100c
Unless of course you get one of the examples with a dodgy pump. Yes I know Corsair have found the problem but even if you buy one today you have good odds on getting a loud one.
Usually better on an high end aircooler, depends on the cooler in question I'll grant you. Something like a Thermalright Silver Arrow SB-A would beat a H100 without spending anymore money on fans.
Prices (From Scan):
Corsair H100 with two god awful loud fans: £82.92
Thermalright Silver Arrow SB-E with two excellent fans: £69.60
You make a good point on weight, but then 99% of users don't move their systems around, those that do would be better with a hydro cooler yes. Or take proper precautions with foam spacers in place for transport.
Omg
If it was cheap/reliable enough to make at an acceptable cost it would have been brought to market already.
hmm is it just me or is that cooler milled/mounted off a bit
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWQZNXEKkaU#t=5m57s
DOH!
I've been testing out peltiers on a PC I built for a friend, custom watercooling and a 200W peltier crowning the 3930K, that thing will drop well below 0 degrees when idling though I haven't got around to overclocking it so I can't say much for load temps. All this just makes me think that maybe we've missed a trick, CPUs are easier to cool so what's the point in a big heatsink? Peltiers! So you've got a 100W CPU and a cooler rated for 300W, slap a 200W peltier in the mix and a bit of waterproofing vaseline so you can really push that CPU!
you can have a huge peltier.. but you still have to remove the heat for it to work- it doesn't just go away like you'd think.. you'll see when you own one- it's not all that great
I am not sure why you would anyone would not want the best cooling available for their computer. The equation is simple, heat = component breakdown or shortened life. It really is that simple - this is why I do not understand people who won't spend $100 on a quality CPU cooler.
Computer companies create cold rooms for their computers for a reason. They know this extends reliability and longevity.
While I sort of understand the question, quality heat sinks are not going anywhere for quite a while. This is witnessed by the fact that Ivy Bridge, Intel's latest CPU runs HOTTER than Sandy Bridge by quite a lot.