Introduction
Cooler Master XDream HAC-V81 and HSC V83 SE Socket A Coolers
I'm going to state the rather obvious first. Processors are getting faster and faster. The competition between Intel and AMD has seen rise to multi-GHz processors. To combat the mortal enemy of high-speed CPUs, namely heat, each company has consistently introduced smaller micron manufacturing processes, which in turn gave rise to lower operating voltages. Even with the best will in the world, the power requirements continue to escalate unabated. Running at absolute stock speeds, both AMD and Intel's latest CPUs push out 60w+ of pure, unadulterated heat.
This has a knock-on effect for the coolers required to keep these powerful CPUs within operating limits. Gone are the days where a miniscule cooler and fan combination could have been used. Today, larger heatsinks and 70-80mm fans are the way to go.
Cooler Master, as you may know, produce a myriad of coolers for both Intel and AMD platforms. Each cooler offers the user a compromise between noise and cooling ability. After all, you cannot have a silent air cooler capable of effectively cooling a highly overclocked CPU. The majority of coolers rely on a single fan speed to achieve their aims. Today's review coolers, the XDream HAC-V81 and XDream HSC-V83 SE, arrive with a rather novel feature in the low-to-mid air-cooling sector. Let's have a closer look at them. First, the XDream V81.
