X-bit labs

Old New Coolers from Zalman, Tuniq, Noctua and Thermaltake for the Overclocked Yorkfield Processor (page 12)

Category: Coolers

by Sergey Lepilov

[ 04/29/2008 | 06:44 PM ]

Installation Tips

The second distinguishing feature of this cooler is a new retention mechanism. Instead of a backplate and spindles with screw nuts, you will use a retention bracket with regular plastic clips for LGA775 and a “swing” clip catching onto the plastic socket bracket for Socket 754/939/940/AM2.

In my opinion, the retention mechanism became less efficient. The cooler doesn’t sit tight on top of the CPU, it can slide easily over the thin layer of thermal compound, even though the imprint showed that it was even and without any gaps. However, there is one advantage: you will not need to remove the board from the system case to install the cooler any more.

The heatpipes coming out of the cooler base do not get in the way of heatsinks on mainboard’s power elements as well as tall memory heat-spreaders:

Thermaltake Big Typhoon 120 VX is priced pretty democratically compared with other super-coolers and hardly ever goes beyond $40 in retail stores. Unfortunately, Thermaltake hasn’t yet introduced any more efficient air coolers than Thermaltake Big Typhoon.