Lamptron FC-2, FC-3, and FAN-ATIC Fan Controllers
- Details
- Category: Cooling Hardware
- Published: Tuesday, 02 June 2009 02:12
When you pay hundreds of dollars or even thousands for a gaming pc, you expect quality. That includes not having your machine sound like a sad excuse for a vacuum cleaner. Fans are a critical component in any machine, cooling your vital components and allowing for optimal performance. Unfortunately, typical stock fans or any fan short of the expensive ones often sound noisy at full power. This is the point where you pick up a fan controller, a device that in truth, controls the amount of power your fans get. Using one of these gadgets allows for minute adjustments in fan speed, allowing for a perfect balance of noise as well as cooling. Now, fan controllers are an age old pc accessory, but that doesn't stop manufacturers from trying to perfect the technology. Lamptron has cooked up three different iterations of this tech, and graciously sent us one of each to tinker with.
With the Socket 1366 platform becoming more and more popular many gamers have been looking for quality heatsinks to keep their rigs cool. This has been even more important with the overclockability of the i7 920. Our friends in Austria, of course, were on top of their game right away giving out free clips to owners of their heatsinks to anyone who wanted to upgrade to an i7 (
Thermalright is the top dog in the heatsink world. Their TRUE heatsink is still outperforming most efforts from their competition long after it was released. When you are on top it's sometimes hard to figure out where to go next. Apparently they saw room for growth in the market for HTPC heatsinks. Because of that I'm here today ready to test their newest heatsink the AXP-140. Similar in looks to the 
The big news from Cooler Master at CES this year was the upcoming release of the long awaited V10 heatsink. Last year they showed off the V10 design at CES similar to what eventually released but without the TEC cooling that was included in the final product. Speaking of the TEC cooling, the idea of a hybrid cooling solution isn't new, but has been far from perfected. Cooler Master believes they have the top dog in cooling performance with the V10. Today we will be comparing the V10 to Cooler Master's V8 to see how much of an improvement the step up in price and size gets you. 
Today we are looking at the Noctua NH-U9B. This of course is far from the first product from Noctua that we have tested; in fact, we have looked at just about everything from their current product lineup. The NH-U9B is similar to the NH-U12p but smaller. Replacing the 120mm fan with a 92mm the NH-U9B is the perfect size for smaller more compact setups. If it's anything like my past experiences I'm sure I won't be disappointed.
Getting the best performance out of your heatsink depends on the perfect application of thermal paste. If there is old thermal paste left over or to much is used you can decrease the performance of even the best heatsinks. In the past I've just wiped thermal paste off with a towel, if it gets really tough I used rubbing alcohol. Tuniq realized that there is an issue where most people don't clean their CPU off properly. They developed TR-1 as a reaction to that problem. Considering how often I am swapping heatsinks I am excited to see how this will perform. Read on to find out!
With our trip to CES this year I had a rare opportunity to get a closer look at Coolermaster’s current and upcoming heatsinks. They showed off their “Top Dog” the v10 mostly, and because of that coverage and enthusiasm the new Hyper N520 was slightly overshadowed. Targeted at the budget crowd who is looking to get the best performance for their money I don’t expect it to break any records. But we have been surprised before, will the Hyper N520 out perform its competitors?
The other day I looked at the Xilence Xilent Blade Pro heatsink. Xilence produces a long list of cooling products. A good example of their wide selection is their Dual Heatpipe RAM Cooler. Designed to give great ram cooling for overclocking it's a perfect match for dedicated gamers and overclocking geeks.
A few weeks ago I took a look at the NH-U12P from Noctua. I was very impressed with the performance of the NH-U12P. In fact it was one of our best performing heatsinks to date. Noctua also makes a different design that is a little more low profile called the NH-C12P. Today we are going to see how the NH-C12P compares to the NH-U12P along with other heatsinks we have tested. In the past we have had trouble finding problems with Noctua; will the NH-C12P perform the same? 
A few weeks ago I took a closer look at a fan from a relatively unknown company by the name of Xilence. Not knowing what to expect I was presently surprised by the quite smooth performance of the fan. They also sent out one of their heatsinks called the Xilent Blade Pro for us to check out. Now that we are past the Christmas craziness, we are going to look and see how it performs compared to the other heatsinks that we have tested in the past. With a similar look to the Gelid Solutions heatsink we tested recently, I don't expect it to outperform the high end heatsinks, but I hope this will be a quite upgrade for a budget rig. 
If it is one thing that I've learned in the past 10 months of reviewing is to not count a company out just because you haven't heard of them. New or relatively unknown companies have surprised me countless times and I think I have finally learned my lesson. Today we are going to look at a 120mm fan from Xilence. Xilence may not be a huge name in the industry, but they have been around since 2003. There range of products consists of cases, power supply units, case fans, notebook coolers, and a wide range of heatsinks. Expect to see more of their products on here in the near future. 
We have seen VIZO products come through here many times; they have even been involved with our Lan Partys in the past. I'm sure you have noticed they make a wide variety of items ranging from lighting to laptop accessories. Today I am going to take a look at their new Armada II ram cooler. I've been known to push things on my computer to the limit and heat is always a concern. The Armada II is designed to cool down your ram to be able to get a little more out of your overclock. I plan to see how it performs in my personal computer and seeing if the kit adds a little more style to my rig. 
For most people the thought of running water through a box full of electronics sounds crazy. If you can get over that, it's most likely intimidating enough that you may never consider the option. Thermaltake designed a few water-cooling kits that are designed to be easy to install and good performing. One of those kits is their Big Water 760i kit. Thermaltake sent us one of the 760i's for us to compare it to all of the heatsinks we have tested up until now, and to find out if they succeeded at making an easy to use Water Cooling kit to get you started with H2O. 
We have tested CPU heatsinks in many different shapes and sizes. Some are ugly and sin but perform amazingly. Others have lights and other features to get your attention but at the end of the day do not outperform comparable heatsinks without all of the flash. Thermalright, a well-known and respected heatsink manufacture has produced a stylized black version of one of their best performing models the TRUE 120. Today we are going to find out how it compares against the other heatsinks that we have tested in the past. If looks are anything to go by (and we have found in the past that they are not) the TRUE Black 120 from Thermalright should blow everyone out of the water.
In the past 6 months, I have gone from not knowing who Noctua is to having a great amount of respect for them. We have seen their thermal paste and fans amaze us repeatedly. Today we get to see if they can include the same level of detail and research that we have seen in their fans into their heatsinks. Noctua shipped us a NH U12P heatsink for us to check out. We are going to put it through our standard tests to see how it compares to heatsinks from other big name manufactures. 
A little over two months ago, we were very excited about an upcoming company called Gelid Solutions. At the time, we had already seen great performance from their thermal paste. We also gave their WING series fan a 5 out of 5. Because of this, I was very excited to hear that they are moving into the heatsink market. They sent out their Silent Spirit CPU cooler for us to check out. To be clear, this cooler was designed to perform well but focuses on keeping the noise to a minimum. Perfect for HTPC's and people who aren't looking for extreme cooling solutions. We are going to take a closer look to find out if Gelid Solutions can keep up the streak. 
Sunbeamtech produces countless pc parts ranging from acrylic cases to keyboards. What more people don’t know about them is they also own Tuniq. Tuniq produces some of the best performing heatsinks and one of our favorite thermal pastes TX-2. With that in mind it wasn’t that surprising when they approached us about checking out their latest heatsink the Core-Contact Freezer. Considering their history I expect it to perform well. But we have recently tested a couple other good performing heatsinks. How will the Core-Contact Freezer stand up to them? Read more to find out.
One look at the Thermaltake website and you will be overwhelmed by the amount of products they produce. A good example is in the CPU heatsink section; just for the 775 Socket alone they carry 17! Thermaltake spends a lot of time researching and producing new and innovative products on regular bases. They have been producing heatsinks for various items using an orb design for some time now. Recently they have produced a new line of heatsinks called the DuOrb Series; this time using a two “orb” design. Today we are going to take a look at the DuOrb CPU heatsink Model number CL-P0464. We will find out how easy it is to install, how it performs and if it is a good value for your gaming dollar. Please click to read more.
About a month ago we reviewed a 