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Introduction:::...
Few
PC trends have swung from one extreme to the other in quite
the way air cooling has. Just a few short years ago it seemed
noise from cooling fans wasn't just tolerated, it was positively
encouraged. Heat sink assemblies designed to take multiple
fans were selling well, and the fact that some retailers
were selling them pre-installed with dual high speed 80mm
fans installed and a resultant noise level that genuinely
warranted the wearing of ear defenders did little to dent
sales.
Luckily
the trend didn't last, and slowly but surely users began
to demand ever quieter systems. 60mm fans were replaced
by lower noise 80m fans, and in some cases 90 or 120mm fans.
Water cooling moved from a niche persuit to a more accepted,
if still slightly exclusive practise, and all manner of
noise deadening kits and thermal control systems sprung
up from vendors worldwide.
Of
course there is a method of cooling that's quieter than
even the largest of fans. It's quiter than water cooling
too. Passive cooling relies on large surface areas to radiate
heat and as such are totally, completely and utterly silent.
Of
course if we work on the premise that there's no such thing
as a free lunch, we have to assume that all the peace and
quiet you gain comes at the expense of higher temperatures.
Only one way to find out!
Thermaltake
claim their CL-G0003 VGA cooler is a high performance option
that requires no additional cooling fans to keep it on course.
I wanted to see if they were right.
The
specs:
 Features |
 |
High
performance fanless GPU cooler, 0dB cooling solution,
reduce total system noise |
|
No
cooling fan is required, stay cool without suffering
the fan noise |
|
Much
better heat dissipation is delivered by larger heat
sink surface |
|
Heatpipe
technology makes the heat
transporting efficiently |
|
Universal
clip for both nVIDIA and Ati |
 Detail
Specifications |
|
P/N
|
CL-G0003
|
|
Compatibility
|
For
video card with mounting
holes on the PCB only
|
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Heatsink
Material
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Aluminum
|
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Heatpipe
|
Gold-plated
copper tube
(5mm dia.) x 2
|
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Weight
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425g
|
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