Excellent software cooler!!!!!

[GenghisK]

I can't believe it, I just can't believe it! So far, I'm using an Athlon Tbird 1.2Ghz. And it was heating at about 50°C when at full power. I used CpuIdle, a commercial software that deactivated some functions when the processor isn't working hard and I was generally around 46°C normally.

But since I was shown, Vcool, my life (at least my Athlon life) has completely changed. You will never imagine. Although it's "only" a freeware, it's performing amazingly. My CPU temperature has dropped down to... 33°C!!! No kidding. And you know that reducing your temperature about 10°C double your CPU lifespan... No comment. Of course when you use your CPU at 100° it will heat more but still Vcool is performing much better than CpuIdle. Amazing, outstanding for a freeware isn't it?

www.vcool.de

Try it try it try it try it try it! It's a hypnotic order! Try it, holy cow, try it!!!!

 

[GenghisK]

Forgot to add something. You can use it in conjunction with Motherbard monitor (MBM5) a freeware. This gives you a lot of information about temperature and settings. It's also used by CPU Idle.

PS: my new CPU record: 29°C (84.2°F). Yep, nevertheless the average is 34°C.

 

[damunzy]

How does it drop the temp? I would guess by slowing down the processor...I can't think of anyway besides that.

 

[GenghisK]

Not at all! Just read their help file: here's a copy paste

How it works
The Athlon (or Duron) enters a lower power state only when its system bus is disconnected. However the (VIA-)Northbridge will only disconnect the bus if its "Bus Disconnect Enable" bit is set and the CPU is in STPGNT state.
VCool allows you to enable this bit so your CPU can relax when there's nothing to do.

Setting this bit might not be enough on some systems as the idle loop provided with the OS will not put the CPU into the STPGNT state recognized by the Northbridge.
For those cases VCool includes an internal idle loop that forces the CPU into the STPGNT mode required by the Northbridge to initiate a bus disconnect.

If you want to read more about how this works follow this link.

Note that the system monitor will report 100% utilization when the idle loop is active.
That's because it takes away all idle time from the OS idle loop and the OS calculates the utilization like:
Utilization = 100 % - %age of time spent in OS idle loop.

Also note that disconnecting the system bus to save power might interfere with "realtime" applications like TV or sound capturing - causing dropouts or other oddities.

Ah yeah you need a VIA based MB though. No stupid SiS.

 

[damunzy]

ah, interesting. I have an Abit mobo...not sure about the chipset...

 

[GenghisK]

So do I, I have a Abit KG7 lite. With a VIA southbridge and a AMD northbridge... So it works partially But it's still working bloody well...