In the lexicon of acronyms frequently bandied about by geeks, gamers, and computer professionals, TDP doesn’t come up too frequently. Phrases like “How many GHz?” “How many MB of L3?” and “What’s the FSB?” are far more likely to come up in conversation than, “What’s the TDP on that chip?”

What is TDP?

But TDP, or thermal design power, is something that those with energy concerns, noise requirements, or overclocking aspirations should definitely pay attention to. The TDP of any processor describes the amount of heat dissipated during nominal operation. That heat emission is largely the product of a processor’s operating voltage and electrical efficiency; those, in turn, are dictated by clock speeds, fabrication size, and overall architecture.

For example, chips like the Intel Atom and AMD Athlon Neo are designed to use minimal power by drawing a low voltage and running at a low clock speed. Typically armed with single cores and minimal cache, these processors are intentionally simple so they top out around 15W TDP.

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Benchmark Reviews has published it’s always informative quarterly heatsink comparison. The Cogage TRUE Spirit shines.

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Zalman steps out of the quiet computing zone and into the performance light with the CNPS 10X Extreme heatsink.

Long-time member Gargoyle waxes nostalgic about the dusty hardware surrounding him and the deep, senseless need to tweak and push it to its limits.

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Corsair has introduced TEC coolers for its Dominator GT RAM. Ice cold!

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Delphi Corporation is best known as an auto parts supplier, but their products span the gamut from high-end electronics to ball bearings. Unfortunately, Delphi has been under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection since 2005 and is in the middle of corporate restructuring, with the courts demanding a full plan by May 4.

Likely due to mounting pressures for restructuring, they recently sold all the assets of their Thermal Liquid Cooling division to CoolIT, the Canadian water cooling company best known for the Domino A.L.C. all-in-one water cooler. As such, CoolIT is now a major supplier for Dell and Apple and any other companies previously supplied by Delphi.

CoolIT is looking less and less like a little fish in a big pond, and we’re interested to see where this purchase will take them.

The new kid on the block is the AMA Aragon 900 water cooling kit. It’s hangin’ tough.