John writes, "I need better cooling for my gaming computer, and instead of going all=out on a water cooling solution, I was taking a look at the ULTRA ChillTec 939/AM2/775/i7 Thermal Electric CPU Cooler. do you know it's any good?"

TEC's - Thermal Electric Coolers - are pretty fancy devices, being able to cool your CPU to below ambient temperatures. This is great for those hot high-end gaming processors, but presents a bit of a problem for the average user: go below ambient temperatures and you'll start to form condensation. Water + electronics = bad.

Of course, the ChillTec is built for the commercial market, so the package comes with everything you need to not worry about serious condensation issues. There are a couple of things you need to know, though:

This thing is big - If you have a smaller case, or you can't fit a standard PCI card in your case, you're not going to be able to fit this thing on your processor.

You need proper air cooling - While the ChillTec will perform well in any case, if you don't have good airflow in your case (front to back, no vacuum effects) you're not going to notice any benefits from this device - in fact, the poor airflow could actually hurt your computer.

It's loud - Cooling a TEC is a pain, and that requires a large, fast moving fan. The faster the fan spins, the louder it's going to be. At full-load, the ChillTec is one of the louder devices on the market.

Would I recommend the ULTRA ChillTec 939/AM2/775/i7 Thermal Electric CPU Cooler? Only if you cannot or do not want to invest in water cooling for your gaming computer. It won't do anything to kill the sound of the fans in your machine, but if you want serious cooling that almost touches on the performance of water cooling, check out the ChillTec.

Do you have a question you need answered? E-mail me! lordkat@gmail.com

Click here to check out How to Build a Gaming Computer for Under $1000.

Be safe,

Jason