Date: March 16th, 2009
Article by: Joe Anderson (Hardware Reviewer)
Edited By: Nathan Glentworth (Owner / Head Editor)
Product was submitted by: Cooler Master
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 <--CLICK FOR PRICES ON A COOLER MASTER V10 IN CANADA
PRODUCT PICTORIAL AND WALKTHROUGH
Unlike most TEC PC cooling solutions, Cooler Master has located the Peltier “sandwich” away from direct contact with the CPU. Keeping the TEC cool is very important, and Cooler Master employs a couple of heatpipe loops to get the job done. Red and black wires supply the current after passing through a “black box” where some electronic voodoo no doubt occurs.
Both 120mm fans are powered via a single 4-pin PWM connector and power to the TEC is delivered through a 4-pin Molex directly from the power supply. Most PC TEC products require a lot of juice, in many cases requiring the use of a separate power supply. The V10 doesn't and we'll see how this affects performance.
Mounting solutions are provides for AMD and Intel sockets, including the newer Intel 1366. Also included is the user manual, warranty card and a sample of Cooler Master's “ThermalFusion” thermal material. Anyone familiar with Cooler master coolers will be familiar with the screws, nuts and washers in the hardware package. If you're not, the user guide explains everything with lots of pictures. Now it's time to see how easily (or not) it is to get the V10 installed.
PRODUCT INSTALLATION AND TESTING
Our testbed for this review consists of the following hardware:
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Intel Q6600 Kentsfield Core2Quad CPU
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Western Digital WD800 hard drive
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Western Digital WD6400 hard drive
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Samsung SH-S203N DVD writer
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Buffalo Firestix DDR2 RAM (2 X 1GB)
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EVGA 8800 GTS 640MB graphics card
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Thermaltake Toughpower 750W PSU
All coolers were tested in the open case pictured above. Keep in mind that temps inside your case will be different, depending on the chassis and airflow.
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