While all in one liquid cooling units continue to dominate the high end CPU cooling space, there is still plenty of room left in the market for a good old fashioned air cooler. Today we will be taking a look at the Frio 14 from Thermaltake. This CPU cooler promises minimal noise output at an affordable price but, does it deliver? Let’s find out…
Overall, we are very impressed with the Thermaltake Frio14 silent CPU cooler. It was clearly designed from the ground up to deliver excellent cooling proficiency at very low noise levels.
Temperatures were kept lower than 50 degrees at all times, even on the power hungry FX-8350 chip. Noise levels were even better, coming in at just 35dBA thanks to the high quality 140mm fan.
I would like to point out that our results are taken with the fan spinning at 100%, most real world scenarios such as gaming, didn’t require the fan to spin this fast and as a result, you’ll achieve even lower noise levels.
If you are interested in overclocking then there is plenty of thermal headroom to play around with. However, for better results, you may want to look in to the Frio Extreme, the dual tower variant of this cooler.
We have been informed by Thermaltake that the Frio14 will release in the UK for about £30, a fantastic price given that it can trade blows with much more expensive coolers. However, store availability has yet to be announced.
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KitGuru Says: If you’re in the market for an extremely quiet, yet affordable CPU cooler and don’t mind the bare aluminium look, then the Thermaltake Frio14 is the first cooler you should be looking at.
For more information: http://www.kitguru.net/components/cooling/matthew-wilson/thermaltake-frio14-silent-cpu-cooler-review/
