Cooling

To find out how powerful and quiet a modern compact PC can be, we dropped an overclocked 2990WX into a mATX case, and liquid-cooled the core components.

Cooler Master releases their MA620P, now updated with TUF Gaming Alliance theme. Same MA620P, now available in yellow.

Never has a stock CPU cooler garnered as much attention as AMD's Wraith. Manufacturers usually don't even mention these bonus items, but AMD's new CPU cooler has changed all of this. Is the Wraith really a game changer?

We've seen several versions of Thermalright's HR-02 Macho since 2011, including the smaller Macho 120 and the huge HR-22. We tested the latest iteration, which sports a new base plate optimized for Intel's LGA 2011-v3 interface.

In our continuing coverage of low-profile cooling solutions for mini-ITX builds, we take a look at the Scythe Kozuti and its unconventional design. Does pulling air through heat sink fins facilitate better performance than blowing it through?

Raijintek's Pallas is a new and inexpensive slim CPU Cooler aimed at the Mini-ITX segment; intended to compete with Thermalright’s top-of-the-line AXP-200.

One of the best things we did for our Radeon R9 290 review was pop off AMD's reference cooler and attach Arctic's Accelero Xtreme III. Today, we show you how we did this, we dive deeper into the results, and ultimately recommend the aftermarket heat sink.

It's time for the numbers. In addition to testing liquid metal compounds and thermally conductive adhesives, each paste is discussed on its own merits before we chart out the results of four usage cases. After all, these products behave differently.

If you find yourself fighting a stubbornly-low overclock, there's a chance that your thermal solution isn't working as effectively as it should. We're testing a number of thermal pastes that might help. But first, let's go over the basics of CPU cooling.

Closed-loop liquid coolers relieve stress from our motherboards, without the portability and maintenance issues of traditional open-loop kits. Are these the best devices for system builders who plan to move their machines and want to avoid damage?

There’s an enormous amount of aftermarket coolers available to those wanting more performance or lower temperatures. The market’s currently dominated by tower coolers, and top coolers have fallen out of favor. Rightfully so? We find out.

Overclocking AMD's Radeon HD 7970 requires effective cooling, but the company's design is incompatible with most aftermarket heat sinks. Arctic and Deepcool claim to have solutions able to get the job done, without the reference cooler's loud fan.

The good news is that it’s possible to cool AMD’s flagship Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition to less than 75 degrees Celsius under full load, maintaining a quiet 32 dB(A) at the same time. The bad news? It'll cost you five expansion slots and more than $100.

Big radiators need lots of space that most enclosures simply weren't designed to offer. We're using Swiftech’s latest triple-fan cooler to test the fitment and performance in four cases supposedly set up to accommodate high-end water cooling setups.

Do Intel’s Core i7-3000-series CPUs really need closed-loop liquid cooling? Today we're testing fourteen different LGA 2011-compatible air coolers on an overclocked Core i7-3960X in order to determine whose is the most effective.

Offering a taste of liquid-cooled performance without the maintenance hassle, sealed-liquid systems are the logical choice for many high-end builds. We compare four options to an air-cooled standard to see if any of them stand out above the others.

After discussing the theory of PC cooling, in Part One, we now move on to technology and implementation, discussing case fans, CPU coolers, and thermal grease. We even wrap up with a recipe you can use if you fail to cool your PC properly.