After checking out the specs on this baby and wondering how well the temperature-controlled fan will work I was anxious to see how it performs. Before I did, I was dissappointed. The darn temp sensor is NOT at the bottom or even near the cpu! aaaahhhhh! Why? Instead the sensor is near the top of the fan. I assume that's to gauge the heat coming from the heatsink since as we all know, heat rises. Sounds like that defeats the purpose but it really doesn't since the fan blows the hot air out from the heatsink, and then rises to that temp sensor. Sure, it'd work better if on the cpu or nearer it but this way will still work, though not as well. For anyone leaving their side panel off as I like to do then you are better off choosing another cpu cooler since you'll not get the full performance the V7 was intended for. Unless you just like the Volcano 7's looks. And that I can understand.

• Epox 8KTA3
• Tbird 1.4
• 768mb pc133 c2
• maxtor ata 100 7200rpm hd
• live value
• Stonex case

To get idle temps I let the system stand for 20 minutes. To get max load I ran Return to Castle Wolfenstein at 1600x1200x32 with all the toys on for 45 minutes. Side panels closed. Tbird 1.4 was ran at 1.4 and then at 1.6. Ambient temp was kept at 69 degrees.

As you can see not too shabby at all. Although with the side panel off temps were cooler of course. The temperature-controlled fan ran anywhere from 2700 to 3276 rpms when idle or surfing the net and doing light graphics work. Under full load the fan went as high as 4618 rpms. I noticed that when the fan hit around 3600 rpms it then got noisy when before it was like a quiet power supply fan, not delta fan err lawnmower fan noisy but just under that. However it was clear that the temp sensor works. Yes it'd work better on the cpu but this is better than none at all.