KUALA LUMPUR, March 31 ― Back in January this year, Intel unveiled their mainstream consumer CPUs in the Intel Core lineup. At the same time, they also showed off a brand new set of stock coolers bundled with these processors. Gone were the ugly looking Intel coolers of past, as these brand new Intel Laminar coolers came with strikingly modern designs, and the top tier Laminar RH1 Cooler even has aRGB lighting.

However, despite the newer, ‘cooler’ design, not everyone seems to be a fan of it. Patrick Bene, a retro games developer who runs the site Pubby’s Stuff, wrote an article detailing his time with the new Intel Laminar coolers, specifically the Laminar RM1 for his own Intel Core i5-12400. Basically, he noticed that the Laminar RH1 meant for the Core i9 had a larger blue plastic cowl over the fan, while his Laminar RM1 didn’t have the cowl, instead keeping an open-air fin design.

Bene basically wanted to know if adding back that cowl to the RM1 will improve the cooler’s performance, both in terms of CPU temperatures and the noise it outputs. So what he did was actually pretty simple; by using literally just a piece of paper with the ends taped together, he managed to slide it snugly into the cooler without the fan touching it.

As it turns out, adding a 1-inch cowl significantly improved the noise output of the cooler, measuring 8db lower in volume compared to the stock Laminar RM1 cooler. However, this also came at a cost of a higher max CPU temperature, topping out at 85°C compared to the cowl-less cooler’s 80°C max temperature. Bene then tested it out again, with a cowl at different heights, and found a solid middle ground with a cowl 1.7 inches high. This provided similar cooling performance, but is still 6db lower in volume compared to the stock Laminar RM1 cooler.

Incidentally, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen PC enthusiasts mod a paper cowl onto their CPU coolers for better performance. Users of the Fractal Design Node 202 case for example have for a long time built DIY air ducts and cowls to get better airflow and cooling into the tiny 10 litre case. Here’s one example taken from the Overclockers AU forums:

If you’re not willing to spend money to get an aftermarket CPU cooler, then perhaps Bene’s paper cowl mod could be of good use to you. However, you’re probably still better off getting a better CPU cooler elsewhere, with something like the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Turbo for instance being a solid cooler that’s not too expensive at RM159 and below on Shopee. But if you’re really into getting a CPU cooler that’s as silent as possible, Noctua’s products, such as the NH-U12A, are perhaps the best in the market right now, though it will cost a lot more. ― SoyaCincau