Who needs a CPU fan?

Given the impressive results of the AP181 fans with the Cooler Master V6GT CPU cooler, it occurred to me that it might be interesting to focus on using these fans to make a system quieter rather than just cooler. After all, an Intel Core i7 980X processor is plenty fast even at its stock speeds. So I reset the processor's clock and voltage to their stock levels, and replaced the Cooler Master V6GT CPU cooler with a Prolimatech Super Mega cooler:

While the Prolimatech Super Mega came in a degree or two behind the Megahalems cooler in our recent tests, it's still one of the very best air coolers you can buy...which is why I decided to try it with no fans at all. By making sure that no cables lie on top of the case fans, I can ensure that the Super Mega gets a nice shot of air.

And here are the results:

You could never pull this off in most computer cases. Remember, while I'm still running the same Everest stress tests I ran in the previous section, the processor's now clocked at its stock speed and voltage. With the stock FT02 fans on low, the processor temperatures are higher than I'd like, but things change dramatically once you turn the stock fans to high or use the Air Penetrator fans. Running a system like this with no CPU cooler becomes entirely possible, even easy; and in the "FT02 fans high" or "AP181 fans low" scenarios, the system at idle is almost silent, with only the faintest whooshing noise being audible. And since there's no CPU fan, stressing the processor results in no increase in noise at all (stressing the GTX480s, of course, is an entirely different proposition!)

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