Cooling…the modern gaming necessity!
In recent years the clock speeds of CPUs (Central Proccessing Unit)
and GPUs (Graphics Processing Unit) have been increasing by leaps and
bounds! The industry seems to not be slowing in their desire to create
the perfectly smooth and functional system. What once seemed like a
normal wait time for an appplication to open is now like an eternity.
People crave a fast system. It is just that simple. Where would this
world be without multitasking anyway? More specifically just the last
couple of years has brought about a new type of processing through
Multi-Core CPUs. Two are obviously better than one right? In almost
every case the anwswer to that question would be yes. However, there
are a few drawbacks that Dual-Core processors bring that has been
overlooked by more than a few companies.
For gaming lovers everywhere we have that GIANT in
Redmond, Washington to thank for the Xbox 360.
What an awesome piece of hardware, as long as it is functioning
correctly that is. What’s this you say…you haven’t heard of the issues
that our plaguing the Xbox 360. Put it this way the inside of the
machine is burning like a volcano. For some reason it seems that
cooling was not high on the priority list of the system designers. Or
maybe it was…but the system designers didn’t get the last say. In all
of my speculating when the marketers were introduced to the system they
may have thought it sounded like a vacuum cleaner. Yes boys and girls
it takes fans running at high speeds to keep a system stable,
especially if you live in a house where your wife likes to turn up the
thermostat in the winter. 
To
make this point perfectly clear take a jaunt on over to one of my
favorite gaming sites for their take on this issue. www.FIRINGSQUAD.com
“In an effort to keep the system quiet, Microsoft is overly
aggressive with running the fans slowly. The best approach for Xbox 360
stability is placing a small exhaust fan to augment the existing
solution. An enterprising entrepreneur could probably make a small
fortune selling an added exhaust fan for the Xbox 360 powered by the
rear USB port. The Xbox 360 just needs a little extra boost –
that’s all.”
In my opinion by far one of the greatest drawbacks to PC processing
(and hinderances to my sweet OVERCLOCKING SKILLS)
is this thing I learned about in physical science called…HEAT!!!
My mother always warned me not to touch a hot oven when I was younger,
but believe me you would not want to touch a processor with a couple of
volts charging it either.
Today’s processors are scorching hot and for the fastest processors
you will need special cooling in order to control the fire your Power
Supply is creating.
I will share a few of my suggestions on how to do this.
1. A case
built for your cooling needs.
2. Adequate room temperature. (Somewhere between 65-75 Farenheit).
3. Good use of thermal
paste.
4. Specifically desiged CPU heat sink and fan or
liquid
cooling :).
Particularly I have found that an excellent cooling solution is the Zalman CNPS9500 LED! I
modified my old Alienware with this CPU cooler and now I have built my
new gaming rig with the same awesome product!!!
You can easily get a sustained 40 degrees celcius as long as you use
some Artic Silver
5 and have good fans in your case.
Notice the 3 heatpipes coming up from the heat sink in a figure-8
config making a total of 6 heatpipes. What a beautiful piece of copper!
A great review of the product can be found here at techPowerUp.
Something extremely exciting has taken place at Sewell Direct
just recently.
We have just added Nvidia
Video Cards on the website!!
The following graphics cards are ready to ship:
-XFX
GeForce 7800 GT-
SW-4270
-XFX
GeForce 6600 LE-
SW-4271
From what I hear this is just the beginning!!
So stay tuned.
Expect a new article from me soon about my new gaming rig!
Well I better get back to gaming…
–Tikiman (Scott Sibley)
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