You slip into German on page 7 around half way up.

lol @ the German

How come the Arctic Freezer Pro 7 was not covered in this series? It's quite a popular cooler and I would be interested in seeing how it compares (as that's what I'm using).

that german has got to be the best typo ever. you tested stock coolers but didnt test an arctic cooler 7? the articles all say that arctic cooling is represented in this test but I fail to see where?das ist nicht los!!

I think box coolers have to compromise between price and performance, so it's pretty much a foregone conclusion as to one's expectation.

However I have had some pleasant surprises; a lot of the boxed AMD processors I have bought (S393 and AM2 in medium speed ranges), have had pretty good coolers. Granted they run on cool processors so they aren't really pushed to the limit, but they do perform excellent: low-noise, good cooling, good MTBF, and decent overclocking results.

Something else I've also noticed - price doesn't buy a good cooler. Some of the more expensive devices are very noisy, bulky and (as I did), you end up wondering where you went wrong. I've bought expensive coolers with copper fins and small fans and had to remove them..they're simply too noisy. I replaced them with devices from Cooler Master etc (some of which were the cheapest I could find i.e. bargain basement), and have had no problems whatsoever. I don't work for Cooler Master but credit is where credit's due - they do their job and they generally do it well.

I think you can get a good boxed cooler, but it's the luck of the draw depending on the platform and particular processor model. If you have an overtly noisy cooler you can always alter your BIOS settings to only spin the fan up when a critical point is reached. Most CPU's just run idle a lot of the time so there's no point suffering or wasting electricity.

p.s. Please..please..manufacturers, you know the LED fans? Please put a switch on them will ya?