Alright so naturally as a gamer you want the fastest rig possible. And, if you are anything like me, overclocking is probably an option you look into. As everyone who overclocks knows cooling is vital to ensure your rig doesn't crash from getting too hot, cook parts etc.
However cooling is a vital part of every system. As a result I am going to give you some quick pointers on how to keep your system nice and cool:
Fans
The easiest and probably cheapest way to cool any system is using fans to shift air. However fans can vary quite a bit. You can get low noise fans, which shift little air but don't annoy you, normal fans that try (and sometimes fail) to strike a balance between noise and performance. And you also get the fans that don't give a monkeys about noise and aim to shift as much air as possible. In most systems nowadays the following set-up works reasonably well:
Cables
Cables can really bugger your systems cooling as it disrupts airflow. Therefore SATA cables can be a godsend as they have little impedance on airflow and rounded IDE cables have less air impedance. If you still use flat ribbon cables on a windowed system switching to rounded cables not only helps airflow but also means they look nicer and can be tied to the case out of the way better. Any PSU cables you won't use can be hidden behind the motherboard tray between the tray and the side panel. Keeps the cables out of sight improving the look and airflow in a case.
CPU Cooling
Heatsinks
Well the main heat source in any system is your CPU. Therefore this is what you are going to want to focus on cooling. If you own a system running at stock speeds and is fairly cool then the stock heatsink should pretty much suffice for your needs. However a system running hot which I would consider over 55*c load on any Athlon system (sockets A/754/939) and Intel's socket 478 then a new cooler is in need if you already have adequate case airflow. If you don't have adequate case airflow then tidy those cables up, fit some fans and see if that helps.
Now if you still have high temps then a new cooler is in question. But what makes a good cooler? Well copper is by far the best metal at absorbing heat that’s affordable but its heavy and it's not very good at releasing the heat into the air. So most heatsinks are made from aluminium. This is a very light metal, absorbs heat well and releases it a lot better. A good heatsink also needs a fan cooling it so a fan that provides plenty of air but with little noise is always a good start.
To aid those of you who don't wish to carry out further reading on reviews of heatsinks I am now going to list some of the best heatsinks about and the sockets they can be used on:
Thermalright XP-120 - A good aluminium heatsink utilising heatpipe technology. A panaflo fan works well with this and while the whole kit is expensive its probably one of, if not the best heatsink about. AMD Athlon 64 (Socket754/939/940)
Thermalright XP-90 - The XP-120's baby brother this is still a good heatsink. Again a panaflo fan would finish this off a treat due to their low noise but decent airflow capabilities. Its cheaper but still expect to pay a reasonable amount for this kit. AMD Athlon 64 (Socket754/939/940)
Zalman CNPS7000B-Al/Cu - This is the aluminium and copper edition of Zalman's CNPS7000 series of flower coolers (along with the full copper). This one I prefer over full copper as it doesn't need the fan on full speed all the time like the copper (the effects of poor heat release) and is lighter and therefore less likely to fall off when shifting your pc about. Good performance and also a nice price tag. I managed to get a 2.65Ghz and 1.675v Athlon 64 3200 to 52*c load with one of these babies. Note for socket A installation it requires screw holes around the CPU socket. Intel Pentium 4 (Socket478), AMD Athlon (Socket A) and AMD Athlon 64 (Socket754/939/940)
Zalman CNPS7700-Al/Cu - Pretty much the same as it's smaller brother above it now uses a much larger heatsink with a 120mm fan instead of 92mm. As a result slightly more airflow and hopefully a bit less noise. Slightly more expensive but if you own a CNPS7000 already its not worth the upgrade as the difference is not too great. However for a stock replacement this is still a great heatsink if you can fit it. Intel Pentium 4 (Socket478), AMD Athlon (Socket A) and AMD Athlon 64 (Socket754/939/940)
Water Cooling
If you are mad (like me) then you have probably overclocked to the point where air isn't good enough. Now is when you need water-cooling. The same chip I used a CNPS7000-Al/Cu on would runn max load at 40*c. That’s 12*c lower than an aftermarket cooler and I guess about 25*c lower than my stock cooler would of done if not more.
For the best kits building your own is the way to go. Manufacturers such as Swiftech, Asetek and Danger Den make the best parts. The main parts you need in any water system are a CPU block, tubing, pump and a reservoir to aid in filling and bleeding the system. However you are also able to cool graphics cards and northbridges with custom blocks.
However for those who are lazy (again like me) then a kit is a better option. Swiftech's H20-120-FK is for sockets 939/754/940 and 478. This is the kit I use after reading great reviews on it. And I must say it’s impressive. There is also a Pentium 4 version for socket 775 and socket A.
Asetek's Antarctica kits are also good quality. Higher priced but the performance is greater and the build quality superb.
Watch out for a more detailed look at water-cooling soon in which I will aid with designing a water-cooling system and how to install and maintain it.
GPU Cooling
I would class your graphics card as the 2nd most important part to keep cool, especially for gamers. Now we all know there are several manufacturers of each type of gfx card and the fact of life is some use standard coolers but others such as Hightech, eVGA and Sapphire actually use non-standard coolers. As a result these cards with non-standard coolers run cooler (naturally) and can be overclocked further.
However those of you with a stock cooler may wish to buy one of these aftermarket coolers. This may be because you have an overheating card or you wish to overclock it. But which ones are better?
Well those of you familiar with Hightech will know that their coolers are slightly customised ArticCooling GPU coolers. These are probably among the best on the market and it is possible to get them for various GPU's. There are 5 coolers for ATI based cards and 6 for Nvidia cards. They are fairly reasonably priced as well and their design means the fans are pretty quiet.
Next up is Zalman again with "flower" style coolers. This time it’s their VF700 series I am looking at:
As you can see they are designed similar to the CNPS7000 and CNPS7700 series of coolers but one half is a smaller size to the other. Again Zalman make these in an Al/Cu version and full Copper. They also come with RAM sinks to aid cooling the GPU RAM. Due to their design surrounding components on the board get cooled along with the GPU. Additionally these fans also run fairly quiet as well. However they appear more expensive than the ArticCooling products. The arguments in Zalman's favour though are that with the AC coolers above they take up a whole extra slot to exhaust the air and there isn't enough room to run 2 cards in SLI with AC coolers fitted. Additionally the Zalman is lighter and is smaller and cools better than the AC coolers.
One thing to note with the VF700 is that the fan connector is a standard 3-pin system fan connector. VGA cards normally power their fans via a two-pin connector. This means that you can’t plug the VF700 directly into your VGA card, but instead have to use either a motherboard fan header, a fanbus, or the supplied Molex connector.
However out of these 2 makes I would still advise on the Zalman cooler as it simply outperforms in so many aspects. Well worth the extra cash.
© 2005 Matt Wylde. Images property of http://www.newegg.com
Please note that this was written back when I ran a water kit. However due to lack of space to work in the case, I am now using a CNPS9500 LED.
review can be found here of the CNPS9500 LED:
http://www.mpog.co.uk/main%20site/reviews/zalman9500.pdf
