Design and Functionality

Thermaltake DuOrb Extreme inherited the heatsink design principles from the first DuOrb version. However, now it uses four copper heatpipes instead of two. They are 6 mm in diameter and come out of the copper base plate:

The heatpipes hold two arrays of a toroidal heatsink. Each of these arrays consists of two independent parts: internal and external. Two heatpipes coming out of the center of the base go along the large torus circle, while the two other heatpipes bearing smaller thermal load hold smaller internal heatsink arrays. This way we can say that the design of Thermaltake DuOrb Extreme looks pretty well thought-through and complete as far as efficient heat distribution goes:

If we continue our comparative analysis of the innovations introduced in Thermaltake DuOrb Extreme against the first DuOrb, we can also point out that the new cooler has become a little bigger: it is 31 mm longer, 21.5 mm wider and 11 mm taller.

As for the weight, it didn’t increase too much: from 324 to 385 g. although it is important to remember that DuOrb has copper heatsink plates, while the new Extreme version has aluminum ones.

The heatpipes are soldered to the heatsink plates and to the base. You can see the traces of soldering on the ends of the heatpipes:

As you see, heatpipes lie in the grooves inside the copper heat-spreader base plate. Together with the soldering technique it ensures the most efficient heat transfer from the base plate to the heatpipes.

The base contact surface is exceptionally even and the finish quality can serve as an example to follow for many other cooler makers:

The photos below show the thermal compound imprints from the RV770 and G200 GPUs on the surface of Thermaltake DuOrb Extreme base plate:

The ATI GPU imprint is perfect, while the imprint left by the Nvidia G200 graphics processor shows an obvious bump in the center and insufficiently tight contact along the sides, which is not surprising because the heat-spreader of this GPU is a little convex.

According to the specs, DuOrb heatsinks are cooled with two 90x20 mm fans (DuOrb cooler model used smaller 80x15 mm fans), although the TT-9220L marking on the fans rotors suggests that the fans are most likely 92 mm in diameter:

Both fans rotate with the same speed that can be set using a small regulator mounted on the power cable. The fans rotation speed may vary from 1000 to 2500 RPM. In this case the noise level should lie within the 16-20 dBA range and the maximum static pressure will be 1.25 mmH₂O. The fans use fluid dynamic bearings that e good for 50,000 hours MTBF each. The blue fan LEDs will create an unforgettable beauty inside your system case (see a photo below).