Massive CPU roundup @ tomshardware

[drew and not u]

Part 1 of a pretty awesome comparison of almost 80 CPU coolers.
Link

[garetjax]

I am extremely suprised to see how poorly Zalman's 8700CNPS fared. =(

[Capper]

Like anything at Tom's take it with a grain of salt.

[oldman_gamer]

Originally Posted by Capper

Like anything at Tom's take it with a grain of salt.

I noticed in the testing done there,that the setup is not done inside of a case,thus allowing more heat escape into the surrounding room.Maybe im ignorant here of many facts,but how can you get a true temp reading in this foremat? I use this comparison: a car has a radiator and fan...said radiator has a shroud that is formed around the fan,thus creating induction of air from the specific area of the radiator,and eliminating outside air to be drawn in and drawing more cooled air directly from the radiator.If you remove the radiator shroud,granted,a motor will still run and maybe under normal use be fine,BUT,there will definitely be a substantial rise in the engine temp.
Now this being said,isn't this comparable to this form of CPU cooler testing?

[Capper]

The thing is, you want to test the HSF on its own merits. I test HSF on a semi-open testbench (Danger Den Torture Rack). As long as the testing setup is consistent, then the results should give you a good idea of the performance.

[Tech Geek Deluxe]

Grain of salt for sure. Though I have perused Toms since they first started ... one must winnow though to find usable results. Interesting test. Can't say I agree with it ... [since some of the losers and poor performers aren't bad products.] However it does achieve a nice winnowing of solid performers. I think the Zerotherm Nirvana got a bad break. [Wonder if they didn't send free ipods or something]

That Thermalright IFX-14 looks real interesting ... especially if one can mount that secondary passive cooler outside the case with a mod and have it over an exhaust fan. I do like their choice of fan ... but wonder if it has enough pressure for the purpose they are using it for. I have 2 of these and tho they have far higher CFM they failed to cool as well as Yate Loons on a Gemini2.

I wonder if a 38MM x 120MM fan fits in between?

[Capper]

I looked over the article today, and have to say its about what I'd expect from Toms. In an attempt to "look tough", they dropped any kind of common sense. I've personally never seen a cooler drop metal shavings like they saw....short of taking a file to the cooler. As to the non-conductive film on the back of a cooler, I can understand if it was too thin, but failing it because the film peeled off just tells me you are WANTING TO FAIL the product.

I don't want to sit here and bash another sites review, I hate that, but
I will here in the forums. Honestly, common sense goes a long way....take your time and read the directions.

[polobunny]

The metal shavings problem was weird... It looks like someone stripping screws.
As you pointed out, the conductive film peeling off is just crap. It's pretty obvious it has to stay there but making a cooler fail because you can easily take it off??