Roundup of Noiseless Coolers for SocketA. `2002 Q2
Asus FSCUG9C-6FC
In fact, this cooler is produced by Elan Vital (you can see its name on the fan), but in all price lists the cooler is tagged as an Asus product.
The first look at it did not arouse optimism. It's too small, lightweight, the fins are thin and the fan iself is tiny.
Going through it step by step.
First thing - it is fastened with a metal clip hooking up to a single tooth of the socket, the fastening is firm and reliable, and thetotal weight is 265 g. The installation procedure can't be simpler. The clip has a lever convenient to handle with fingers, so it takes a few seconds to install it. The radiator is also easy to remove. As to the packaging kit, nothing but a small pack of thermopaste was put into the box.
Looking at the radiator. Its base is a thick copper plate (4 mm thickness). Copper is known to be a perfect heat conductor.. Thin aluminum fins placed inside the housing are soldered to the base. The cooler dimensions are 68.2x66.6x53.8 mm, which aids installation on any motherboard.
The fins are very thin and will stay cold at higher temperatures, which will negatively affect the cooling efficiency.
At the center of the base there is a rectangualr pad with flares. Basically, this pad should provide a better contact with the processor core, with the flares meant for preventing the core from chipping. And, finally, some kind of heat conductive layer is applied to where the processor contacts the copper pad (it is clearly seen on the photo that the thermal interface is shielded with a special detachable strip).
So the entire rig is cooled by a small 60 mm multibladed fan. As in the case of Volcano 7, the fan is able to vary the rotational speed within the range 3200 rpm to 4800 rpm. The speed varies with thereadings of the thermal sensor which, unlike Volcano 7, is placed at the center of the copper base. The base is finished quite crudely, so pay a special attention to the thermal paste used.
I remember somebody describing quite vividly how hard he was at removing the thermal sensor. He even had to make use of torch flame and a pair of sizeable pliers :)
Now the most essential - the noise level declared by the manufacturer (www.elanvital.com.tw/products/thermal/FSCUG9C-6FC.htm) is within 25dB and 37 dB (depending on the rotational speed). I must add, the cooler makes low noise (not absolutely noiseless, of course) and it was no problem sleeping with the PC left powered-on overnight. Admittedly, it ran non-stop quietly for the first 4 months, but then either some dust fell into the fan or the bearings were wearing out (which may have been caused by the former :). As a result, that brought in some annoying high-frequency noise.
By the way, when a fan breaks down, you are very unlikely to find the identical one. However, if you are lucky to find one (or similar in size), there won't be any problems installing and plugging it, since the speed controller (a black box) has a three-pin socket (as you can see from the photo, it is of white color).
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