A programmer by the name of Patrick Bene used a piece of paper to make Intel’s Alder Lake Core i5 stock cooler run more quietly without negatively impacting temperatures.
Intel redesigned the stock coolers for its 12th-generation processors, and that design varies depending on which chip you buy. Bene noticed that the new Core i9 cooler has a blue plastic cowl mounted around the fan, but the Core i5 version doesn’t, so he decided to experiment.
Bene created a cowl using a piece of paper and taped the ends together to form a cylinder. He then slid it around the edges of the fan on his Core i5 cooler and set about seeing if it made any difference. The results were surprisingly positive, but varied based on the height of the cowl used.
The stock cooler without the homemade cowl ran his Core i5-12400 processor at a maximum temperature of 80 degrees Celsius under load. Introducing a 1-inch cowl made the chip temperature increase to 85C, but dropped the relative noise level by 8 decibels.
Bene then experimented with cowl height and found the sweet spot was 1.7 inches. At that height, the chip temperature remained at a maximum of 80C, but relative noise was reduced by 6 decibels. Two audio clips on Bene’s website demonstrate just how much of a positive change that makes to noise levels, and he confirmed the reduction in noise was noticeable when the chip was idling as well as at full load.
We don’t recommend anyone modify a stock cooler with a piece of paper, but perhaps someone at Intel will see this experiment and take another look at the design of the Core i5 stock cooler. Of course, the best way to improve your CPU heat and noise levels is to invest in a premium heatsink and fan rather than relying on a stock cooler.
