Is ‘Performance Cooling’ Getting Out of Hand?

After looking at a couple of the new Thermalright designs, and a Noctua design, all selling for $85, I began to think that something is wrong in the state of Denmark.

Eighty-five dollars for an air cooling solution? I know inflation is ridiculous right now, and all the ‘chickens’ of the Bush economy are ‘coming home to roost’, but really! When I see prices like this, I think to myself that the adage ‘In for a penny, in for a pound’ applies. When something that still relies on old technology gets close to costing a C-note, it just may be time to start looking at those once exotic solutions, that will allow much higher performance, at not much more money (well, not that much more, in the large scheme of things)

Wait a minute. Aren’t modern processors supposed to use less power under all but the most brutal conditions? Those conditions like – all 4 cores being at 100% usage?

When it comes to performance, I’m the first one on board. I believe that things should be designed for the very worst case circumstances. Along the lines of…if more is better, too much is just right! But still I am having my doubts about these cooling solutions.

Is liquid cooling that much more expensive? Is there a way that these gargantuan air coolers will fit in a standard case? These are questions that must be answered – because these are both long term solutions, not something that one throws away with the next build.

Looking at the latest, and largest to date, cooling solutions by Thermalright, Noctua, and Scythe, it is easy to see that careful measurement, or the development of a friendship with a local dealer is necessary – each one of these solutions will not fit on every motherboard. (this is similar to the choice of Hooker headers, or Doug Thorley’s, based on the  car chassis, as both companies make good products, but unless someone is handy with a torch, and the car owner doesn’t mind, searching for the proper fit is necessary)

Liquid cooling (liquid cooling is the proper term, as only an idiot would use water, for a number of reasons) is usually easier to place on the inside of the case, as the water blocks tend to be smaller, but the other end of the solution is a radiator that can be hard to manage. Some are designed to mount externally, but the results are usually less than satisfactory. There are some that are meant to stand alone, but then the PC becomes more of a multi-part system, not easily moved, and less tolerated by significant others. These are also intolerant of the insertion of cat claws, of small children’s curiosity, and must be serviced on a regular basis.

Cooling amazes the casual observer with the number of choices, and confounds the experimenter with the amount of fiddling necessary, and makes many wish for those times of yesteryear, when a simple aluminum slug placed on top of the CPU or GPU would do.

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