X-bit labs

Titan Vanessa S & L-Type and Thermaltake Big Typhoon vs. Zalman CNPS9500 LED (page 9)

Category: Coolers

by Sergey Lepilov

[ 09/07/2005 | 04:17 PM ]

The heatpipes sit in special grooves in the heatsink sole, so that the contact area gets much bigger than if they were just lying on the flat surface of the sole. So, the heat dissipation goes more efficiently than by Titan Vanessa, for instance:

The top of the heatpipes is covered with a copper plate, which also supports the cooler retention mechanisms.

The sole surface is processed very poorly. Despite the seemingly flat surface, you can clearly feel the machining tracks by touch:

And don’t even mention any polishing or mirror-shine; they are not there. This is probably the only drawback about the design of Thermaltake Big Typhoon cooler. Besides, you may also notice some scratches left by the CPU covers (we have been using this cooler in our lab for a month already), but this is certainly not a design drawback.

The cooler can be easily installed onto any CPU socket. There is a long top bracket and two different back-plates that make the entire cooler retention. Once the cooler has been installed onto our ASUS A8N-SLI, the whole thing looks as follows:

Everything seems to be pretty simple at first glance, however, it is very inconvenient to fasten the screws because of the top aluminum fins block. You have to hold the screwdriver at an angle, it slides over the head of the screw, and the L-shaped screwdriver was not included with the accessories set. Moreover, if you are installing the system into a standard ATX case you will have the power supply unit in your way. Here are the photos of the installation guide for your reference: front page and back page .

Thermaltake Big Typhoon looks like a real giant inside the case:

In conclusion I would only like to add that Thermaltake Big Typhoon is the only solution of all our today’s testing participants that generates a very efficient airflow inside the system case: it cools all the electronic components located around the CPU on the mainboard and even the system memory.

Once again, if you would like to get more details on Thermaltake Big Typhoon and other Thermaltake coolers, you can check out our recent article called Four CPU Coolers from Thermaltake Tested.