Cooling Systems?

Oh gosh.

I've never used a cooling system, either internal or external for my desktop. I browsed Frozencpu.com, and so many things are divided by categories. Even when I click on something I believe to be relatively close to what I would like, the descriptions don't say much about the device's purpose. They just explain how "cool" these things are.

Some reviews are made by the same person, and most items in stock don't have reviews at all. So how am I going to know what will work and what won't? What are these 120mm objects that aren't even called fans, yet are claimed to reduce noise?

I'm curious about CPU coolers, HDD coolers, good intake/outtake fans, (video card coolers?) And the subject of liquid cooling versus the more classical airfan cooling...

Where do I REALLY start?

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Wow, what a tremendous amount of input there.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

If you find the possibility of wasting time answering the initial question in the first place, DON'T BOTHER! IT'S EASIER THAN ARITHMETICS. Here's a second suggestion, don't play a political game of ping-pong, answering a question by asking something else only. That's irritating, because it puts the person replying to the initial post in a state of "I'm pretty sure you don't know what you're talking about here."

I'm pretty sure that an intel E6750 duo core processor, an 8800 GTX 768 MB video card, 2 7200 rpm hard drives in a raid 0 setting, an 800 watt p supply, and a 650i SLI Intel Quad Core Ready are candidates of using a cooling system in the first place.

By the way, in case your subtle mind couldn't notice (in response to your authorative last statement), some of the implicit questions involved curiosity with cooling systems, and cooling product brands, while not simple the mere implication of, "Yes I want one and you should tell me now."

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

See, that's the thing. Is "that hot" good enough for its life-capacity? Is it, really? Do I wait until there are problems, or act ahead? A friend of mine, who lives in my neighborhood, bought a pre-built custom-made desktop from IBuyPower.com and after two years of having it, it's been starting to over-heat. He's taken off a side-case and placed a fan almost up against his system to prevent heating. Dust, bad wiring, a stuffy room... can all add a few degrees, which aren't mentioned in answers about a current rig.

Still, you're all spinning circles with that same question. Neither of the other questions are being answered, with brand comparison or experience, knowledge of how things have worked (again, experience): as referred to the last statement in my previous post. It's not an implication that you don't know much about cooling systems per se, but with the little discussion regarding such it does seem that way.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Thanks, I appreciate that kind of stuff. To add a bit more, I spoke with fLeSh last night on IRC.

TECs or thermal electric cooling units, something that was to be implemented in a fan I checked out, does indeed cool the actual component. However it releases more heat, overall, to the system itself. Basically I crossed out TEC enabled units as an option.

Another was, for anyone planning on overkill, that if your system temperature goes below room temperature (75 degrees Fahrenheit) then the computer is prone to contain condensation formation on components. In addition, he talked about air-fans (intake/out-take) and the cpu cooling unit. Vantec stealth fans (for noise), and a Zalman cpu-cooling unit would be anything I could use at the moment. With THAT information, I just concluded that I'd have to see how the system would function for some time and MAYBE consider those two options: a top-end cpu cooler, and fans to reduce even more noise.

Nothing was really mentioned about cooling HDDs in a raid 0 setting.

I was speaking idiomatically.