Introduction

Cebit this year was less spectular that in 2008, but there was still plenty to see and discover for the hardware enthusiast.

We’ll go over the different thermal cooling solutions in this article which you’ll find in shops later this year.

Arctic Cooling

The Arctic Cooling booth was filled with a lot of known VGA coolers, the Accelero series for mid and high end for each product out there were nicely displayed. Of course we’ve already seen them in pictures so we went on to look for the new coolers, we stumbled on the Accelero L2 Pro:



At first sight it might well be used as a 1U CPU cooler, but it turns out to be a entry level VGA cooler, used by a lot of partners as the L2 Pro was visible on tons of VGA products all over Cebit.



The Alpine CPU coolers series received an updated mounting to make it compatible with Socket 1366 (Core i7), the new version can be recognized by the number 11.



For the high end they had the Freezer Extreme Revision 2 on display which adds Core i7 mounting:



The popular decoupled fans Arctic Cooling is known for is replicated by their new fan series which are available in 80/92/120mm size, the F8/F9/F12 Pro:



Laptop cooling is new, we saw a notepad cooler last year also, but this year it looks to be much closer to release, featuring an extra USB-hub and fan speed control.

Scythe

Scythe was already present this year, with their EU sales office located in Germany they were present in full force, showing of their latest products.

We have an Infinity 2 Mugen 2 sample on our test bench and a review will appear soon at the site, in the meanwhile we saw a very nice line-up of Mugen 2 prototype coolers Scythe experimented with before arriving at the final design.



There were ones with 5 heat pipes and very tightly packed fins:



A direct-heatpipe-touch version which didn’t really perform better, in their tests the classic approach of featuring a small copper base plate gave the best performance.



Another 5 heatpipe version with different fin orientation:



Stepping away from the prototype area we saw a huge heatsink, not quite as big as the Orochi but still mighty impressive. Dubbed the Godhand, it features a 200mm fan and a separate “Ninja” mounting wire which attaches to the PC case to take the load of the motherboard.




The Godhand CPU cooler covers a large portion of the motherboard, so you won’t need active cooling for your memory sticks, there is also enough clearance for even the fanciest Corsair Dominator modules.



Going back to known territory Scythe will be releasing updates versions (Rev. B) of their coolers which will add socket 1366 compatibility:



We’ll also see a new version of the Zipang, aptly called Zipang 2, it also features 6 heat pipes but the fins are more spread out and offers more raw material and coverage area.



The popular Katana will also get a new version, featuring 92mm fan, the Katana 3 will have immense platform compatibility (going back to Pentium 4, all the way to Core i7)



The original Kama Cross heatsink with 100mm was one fine looking cooler with above average cooling performance:


Click Image to generate your own chart

The Kama GrandCross will be a bigger version of this cooler, the unit visible at the Cebit booth looks a bit raw here and there so expect small changes before final product launch:



A new prototype passive VGA cooler was also on display, using the well known Ninja name, it might be a hit or miss compatibility wise, it does look like it means business, no known availability date yet.



Something which will be available in very near future is the Kama Stay, a PCI bracket which allows you to fit any type size fan to increase overall system cooling:



When Scythe launches their Sony fluid bearing based S-Flex 120mm fans they were very well received by the enthusiast community, very quiet, excellent performance, very long life, minimal motor noise. Now we’ll be able to enjoy these S-FDB bearings in smaller size fans too, 80/92mm are ready for retail.

Thermaltake

Our first visit at Thermaltake this year, with a very nice display of some unique cases and cooling solutions; we’ll only mention the cooling products here, the cases will be discussed in a later article (not to miss!)

First up are the air coolers, the BigTyp14Pro has been on the market for a few weeks now with good reception by our colleague reviewers X-Bit Labs, matching performance of the Thermalright SI-128 SE, no small feat!



The TMG IA1 smaller but still good performing:



A brand new retail 120mm fan with soft rubber mounts and build-in speed control:



Water cooling products are also still in the loop at Thermaltake, the BigWater series gets a new iteration PW880i compatible with LGA1366 and with external radiator mount, integrated flow meter and plenty of accessories and water blocks.




Laptop coolers for all sizes and brands, the biggest one makes a 17” laptop looks small.




There have been rumors of low cost phase change cooling units by different manufacturers these past few years, OCZ came very close to releasing on, but in the end they gave up it. Thermaltake has pushed not one, but two to retail, the Xpressar RCB400, compatible with VGA and CPU , takes up 4 bayes and does look an awful lot like the phase change coolers we all know (asetek, prometeia)



It takes its power from a 4-pin connector, works on 12V and consumes only 50W.




We didn’t get any performance indication, but seeing as the higher end model, RCS100 manages to keep Core 2 E8400 @ 4Ghz at 50°C and there is no insulation material visible, don’t expect sub-ambient temperatures.

Here the higher end Xpressar which does about 20°C better than their own water cooling units, if the text it is to believed:

GlacialTech

GlacialTech has been around for a while, providing enthusiast products at a steady basis which offers above average performance at interesting price points. We’re currently testing two of their CPU coolers.

At their Cebit booth they had a newer version of their high end heatsink, the UFO V51 with a faster spinning LED fan for fancier and better cooling.



The X-Wing R1 notebook cooler is good for up to 17” laptops and when hooked up through USB allows you to control PC volume and launch movie player with the buttons on the X-Wing, you can also check out the cooling fan’s RPM and temperature on a small blue LED display.



If the R1 is too fancy, the G1 will suffice, a notebook cooler with integrated fan at the bottom.



Gelid Solutions

We met with Gelid Cooling Solutions who have some new products in the pipe line, not all of which they could mention, they will be sending us their mid-range CPU cooler, compatible with S1366, for those with very small HTPC cases and MicroATX motherboards, these two CPU coolers will be of interest;



They feature a temperature controlled cooling fan and have one heat pipe in the middle to increase cooling performance. Their low profile and custom fan will surely go a long way to make your miniPCs a bit quieter compared to Intel/AMD stock 1U solutions.



Spire

Spire had plenty of new products at their booth this year, unfortunately only one small cubicle dedicated to CPU coolers, their latest tower coolers promise high efficiency. If you live in Europe they will be available through retail channels at interesting prices.

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This was the Cooling action at Cebit this year, stick around to get the latest on the DDR3 memory, SSDs, Motherboards, Video Cards and much more in our follow-up articles.