VR-Zone

CPU coolers come in all shapes and sizes. For the obvious reasons, here in VR-Zone we usually review cooler capable of delivering very high thermal performance and/or excellent acoustics. Today however we will have a look at the Samuel 17, a product from Prolimatech designed with a different purpose in mind; to be capable of delivering the highest possible overall performance while being only 45mm tall. How does Prolimatech’s David compare against the numerous Goliaths currently available? We will find out in this review.

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It has been nearly a year since we had a look on the Venom Voodoo, Akasa’s best CPU cooler to this date. However, high thermal performance and a fancy appearance usually are not a priority for mainstream users who are looking for good overall performance at the lowest possible price. Realizing that, Akasa released the Nero 3 cooler, a product which the company claims that offers both peak performance and near silent operation combined with a strongly competitive retail price. We will thoroughly examine and test the Nero 3 CPU cooler in this review.

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Undoubtedly Megahalems, the first CPU cooler which Prolimatech released in 2008, is largely responsible for the high reputation of the company among enthusiasts and their highly successful market penetration despite the steep competition. Today we are going to test and review the third revision of the Megahalems CPU cooler which, despite the virtually unchanged design and physical dimensions, the cooler today can be installed on virtually all recent Intel and AMD CPUs.

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Be Quiet! have just announced the release of the Dark Rock Pro 2 and Dark Rock 2 CPU coolers, upgraded versions of the Dark Rock Pro C1 and Dark Rock Advanced C1 which we reviewed a few months ago. With the new coolers the company promises higher performance through the use of 135mm SilentWings fans, plus an improved mounting system.

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Ever since 2001 ARCTIC (formerly known as Arctic Cooling) has been one of the favorite brands among (mostly European) enthusiasts when shopping for high grade cooling products. This is our first review of an ARCTIC CPU cooler in VR-Zone and it is not an article about a monstrous high performance cooler; instead, we are going to have a look at one of the most successful middle-range performance coolers ever made, the Freezer 13.

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It has been 9 months since we had the opportunity to examine and review one of Thermaltake’s best CPU coolers, the Frio, which was one of the best air coolers available at that time. Thermaltake has been a company which traditionally tries to satisfy even the most hardcore of enthusiasts and they almost never are bewildered by high performance alone. That and the heavy competition at the top segment of the CPU cooler market led Thermaltake to release the Frio Extreme, a completely redesigned CPU cooler, teeming with features and boasting ultimate performance. The company has supplied us with a sample which is going to be thoroughly examined and tested in this review. 

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It was only four years ago when Prolimatech was founded and the company initially offered only a single CPU cooler, the Megahalems. That single cooler however was good enough to make Prolimatech famous among enthusiast cycles and allow the company to establish a good foothold in the industry. Today we will examine and review something new and different from Prolimatech, the Lynx. The Lynx is not a massive cooler designed to win over hardcore enthusiasts but an entry-level cooler, primarily designed to compete against other basic products and replace the stock CPU coolers. The specifications of the Lynx however are very interesting considering this is meant to be compact, simple and cheap CPU cooler; we will soon see just how many surprises this product holds. 

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If you're itchin' to hook up your almighty GEFORCE GTX 680 (or two) to your existing waterloop, Koolance now has a decent looking block for you to consider. The company has just released its VID-NX680 water block to suit NVIDIA's current flagship card.

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Today there is an abundance of high performance CPU coolers, with each company supplying several solutions to the market. The vast majority of such CPU coolers however are tower coolers of significant size, making their implementation inside desktop HTPC cases and other tight configuration problematic. In this review we will examine and test a special kind of cooler; the NH-L12 by Noctua, a low profile quiet cooler developed to offer superior acoustics performance in tight spaces. 

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It's been quite a few years since we last saw a watercooling solution in retail from Cooler Master, despite the company demoing various solutions over the past two years at all the major trade shows. Now the company has finally decided to make a return to the watercooling business, initially in Europe only with its new Eisberg series of coolers.

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"What if I have about US$5000 to spend - Could I have a true 8-core/16-thread CPU in a small form factor setup without compromising on storage, thermals or online gaming prowess?"

Well, we show that we can!

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It's fairly likely that you've never heard of Boston Ltd, a UK distributor and white box server and workstation manufacturer. The company has teamed up with Danish Asetek to deliver a fully water cooled workstation using Asetek's famous water cooling solutions with four Nvidia cards and two brand spanking new Intel Xeon E5 processors.

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It's funny how one product can lead to a new and quite different product and in the case of Sapphire the company feels that it's Vapor-X graphics card coolers have been so popular that it's highly likely that we'll see CPU coolers using the Vapor-X technology from the company. As such the company was demoing a new cooler at CeBIT which is very likely to go into mass production sometime in the near future.

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Noctua is better catering to users requiring a lower profile CPU cooler with the birth of its new NH-L12; a cooler sporting four nickel-plated copper heatpipes that should feel right at home in Small Form Factor and HTPC cases in particular.

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