CoolIT Boreas

Posted 03/07/2008 at 5:38pm | by David Murphy

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There comes a time in every young PC builder’s life when he seriously considers outlandish ideas for modifying and cooling his smokin’ new gaming rig. But you don’t need to mod your PC into a refrigerator to reach subzero temperatures, not if you have CoolIT’s latest 12 TEC cooler, the Boreas.

CoolIT’s Boreas could likely fit a stock CPU cooler inside its sprawling gut, a 4-inch-long heatsink with a 12cm fan on each end. Two mounting brackets are preattached to the device, and thank heavens! Few cases have enough room for this chubbo. The included MTEC control box connects the Boreas’s automation software to the device, although it uses an entire USB header with absolutely no pass-through.

That’s not too bad a sacrifice given the payoff. On its quietest setting, the Boreas beats out the loud Zalman CNPS9700 air cooler in both our idle and burn tests. Cranking the Boreas to the max drops our CPU temperature to 11 C, but created dangerous levels of condensation. It’s the Boreas’s Achilles’ heel: Cool too much and you could destroy your rig. The included software and controller mechanism minimize this issue by letting you pick a temperature for the Boreas to shoot for—a feature sorely missing in previous CoolIT coolers—but finding the perfect setting requires a little experimentation.

Kratos

You will not find a more powerful cooler.

Ares

Ear-splittingly loud when cranked up, uses an entire USB header, tricky condensation.

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