This year I have spent a lot of time experimenting with different water cooling kits. Water cooling is something that I have not had the chance to play with in the past so it has been quite interesting. Although most users see the idea of putting water inside a computer as a little insane, it is actually not all that dangerous anymore. Sure there are a number of expensive hardware components a leak could kill in seconds, and thats why these new water cooling kits are so impressive. All the components are designed to work together to ensure that your hardware stays safe.

However, the fact remains that the majority of users out there cannot afford elaborate cooling setups or simply do not require them. For these users the good old fashioned air-cooled method will meet their requirements. This method of cooling is highly effective as it is very cheap, easy to use and places the system in absolutely no danger. For these reasons there are many times more air-cooled computers out there when compared to water cooled computers.

An advantage to a water cooling system is that the kits often feature an after market graphics card block as well as a processor block. This means that a single water cooling system can effectively cool the motherboards chipset (Northbridge), graphics card (GPU) and processor (CPU). Although all three of these components are often actively air-cooled, their standard cooling elements are usually quite weak when compared to after market solutions.

This is when manufacturers of after market cooling products such as Thermalright can be quite handy. For many years now Thermalright have dedicated their business to providing the very best CPU coolers possible. Over the years they have refined their products time and time again and today they still offer what are possibly the best air-cooled products on the market. Recently Thermalright have expanded their horizons by including some new chipset and graphics card coolers to their lineup.

Their latest product caught my eye and I just had to have one. Known simply as the V-1, this unusual looking heatsink is actually intended for use with both ATi and NVIDIA graphics cards. The V-1 uses a dual heatpipe design like many of the passive designs we have seen recently. However the V-1 does thankfully feature a quiet fan which is designed to keep the graphics card cool at all times. Unfortunately, graphics cards that feature passively cooled solutions tend to run dangerously hot and are unsuitable for long periods of game play.

The V-1 on the other hand is designed to replace standard cooling solutions put in place by the graphics card manufacturers. The V-1 looks to be the first real competition for the Artic-Cooling VGA coolers. Like many of the recent additions to the Thermalright line up the V-1 is constructed from high quality materials using advanced construction methods to ensure maximum efficiency. Although the V-1 is certainly not the most attractive VGA cooler, it is likely to be one of the most efficient, so lets move on and find out how it stacks up...