X-bit labs

Four CPU Coolers from Thermaltake Tested (page 4)

Category: Coolers

by Vasily Melnik

[ 09/05/2005 | 10:40 AM ]

Despite the visually big dimensions and somewhat unconventional construction, the Big Typhoon is designed quite typically for cooling systems of that type.

It consists of a copper foundation, heat pipes and a large plate heatsink. An exclusive 120mm fan from Thermaltake with a rather low rotational speed of 1300rpm is cooling down this construction.

The speed of the fan seems to be low, but it creates a sufficient air stream to cool the heatsink and almost all top part of the mainboard with such components as the chipset’s heatsink, memory modules, and the CPU’s voltage regulator. The reverse side of the graphics card even gets some air from that fan.

There is nothing dramatically new about the heatsink design:

It has a massive copper sole with heat pipes and a heat-spreader with aluminum plates. This is a classic design with an optimal combination of size, weight and efficiency. For example, it would be in vain to use copper ribs here since the heatsink would become too heavy for some mainboards.

The heatsink consists of two parts each of which serves three heat pipes. Both parts are additionally clamped up with the frame the fan is fastened to.

The sole finish quality is average:

The base is matte and you can see traces of the milling machine. Well, modern processors with their own heat-spreading caps are satisfied even with such poor processing of the cooler’s base. If you are not fighting for every degree, you won’t have to polish it additionally.