TrulyObscure - article - gadgeteer - trulyrandom - Cooling to the Max with Danger Den and CoolIT

We’ve been featuring quite a bit of computer-related reviews lately and we’re not quite finished. Before the new year, Truly Obscure will take a look at some great games for you holiday shoppers, as well as a neat new way to watch TV on the computer.

But first, we wanted to take a look at a pair of products that have been among the most difficult to review items in our history. Both of these items are unlikely to be on many shopping lists this season- but perhaps our longest-ever review can convince you that it’s time to make your PC the best on the block, if not in the town.

Every processor can do better. You buy this several hundred dollar item from Intel or AMD, and they set it to minimal specifications where they are perfectly confident about performance, heat, and lifetime. With very little work you can overclock your processor to perform faster- sometimes much faster, so it can run at 150-200% of it’s ‘normal’ speed. This operation isn’t even all that difficult to perform, and it won’t necessarily void any warranties or anything… but there are two major downsides. First, the chip usually doesn’t last quite as long (not a big deal since you will probably replace your computer long before the chip would have issues). Second, and more importantly, it will get hot. Very hot.

Hence the need for improved cooling. Your computer almost certainly has a fan over the processor, what they call ‘stock cooling’- cheap, effective, durable. But stock cooling isn’t capable of handling temperatures much in excess of what your processor already gives out: depending on your ambient temperature, you can probably add another 30-50% of overclocking before you start needing to look at other methods.

We tested two solutions, one on each side of a wide spectrum. There are the extreme overclockers, who dip their components in oil or feel comfortable flashing motherboards. We have you covered, don’t worry. On the other end are the folk who probably would not feel comfortable dumping liquids around their expensive PCs. And for you, we present the CoolIT Freezone, a relatively simple and pain-free way to get more from your computer.

The Freezone uses liquid cooling like our next item. But it also features TECs, thermoelectric cooling units called peltier devices. It also is self-contained, with a pump, reservoir, liquid coolant, the block that will attach to the processor, and the chiller/fan all in one device. It’s not quite a piece of cake to install- we had to remove our motherboard from the case- but it doesn’t require any special tools and could be done comfortably by anyone who has changed an internal component. The Freezone won’t fit in smaller cases, and it won’t work for older processors, but will work on most modern CPUs. It also delivers extraordinary performance at very modest noise levels, making it easily the best pre-assembled system: we were able to get our standard core temperatures as low as 30ºC during a heavy load (maxing the CPU using SuperPi). That sort of temperature drop allows a low-end $200 Core2Duo processor to overclock to around the speed of a $600 or even $1000 processor! The Freezone CoolIT could use a few more settings (low/high isn’t quite enough), but if you are new to overclocking, it’s definitely worth the $300 or so. Alternatively, they just released the Eliminator, which is a slightly lower-end version for $200.

But if your processor isn’t the only thing you want to overcool, or if you want a little more customization, you’ll like Danger Den. They offer individual components, or a kit that you install and features CPU as well as GPU (graphics card) cooling- we tried the 4200, which came with a nice DVD showing how to install the many pieces. It can be a little intimidating- requiring cutting of hoses, careful fittings, watching for leaks- but the Danger Den kit offered fantastic flexibility and was actually quite safe. The liquid they include is non-conductive, which means that even if you spill some on your motherboard, all should be well. The high-quality pump and copper waterblocks, along with large tygon tubing, make for an insanely attractive system once installed- as does the translucent reservoir and eerie green of the liquid. The results will vary widely- ambient temperatures matter more here, and you can expect some issues with bubbles. We managed to overclock our GPUs about 20% over normal cooling, and our CPUs about 65% due perhaps to other motherboard components getting too hot. At $300 for the Danger Den kit, you should be ready to get your hands dirty, but can expect your system to turn a lot of heads- and have power to spare.