The 140mm Slim Tower CPU Cooler Roundup: Thin & Light Done Just Right
by E. Fylladitakis on May 24, 2017 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- be quiet!
- Noctua
- Phanteks
- Cooler
- Thermalright
Thermalright True Spirit 140 Direct
Thermalright is practically a newcomer here in AnandTech, as we have not looked at any of their products since 2010 and our last Thermalright CPU cooler review is now nearly a decade old. The cooler that we will be reviewing today is the Thermalright True Spirit 140 Direct, the upgraded version of their popular Thermalright True Spirit 140 cooler. It comes supplied inside a dark box with minimal artwork, only a clear picture of the cooler itself and icon denoting its most important features.
Inside the box we only found the absolute necessary parts for the installation of the cooler, which are a one-fits-all backplate, mounting hardware, fan support wires, fan anti-vibration standoffs, and a small but detailed installation manual. Thermalright also supplies one dose of their “Chill Factor” thermal compound.
Much like Noctua’s and Be Quiet!’s offerings, the Thermalright True Spirit 140 Direct has a single 52 mm deep fin array with a 140 mm fan attached on it. The fin array is relatively simple, with only a recessed center area to reduce the aerodynamic drag noise. The top fin of the array has been painted black for aesthetic purposes. It has five 6 mm nickel-plated heatpipes.
Thermalright is using one of their TY-140 cooling fans on the True Spirit 140 Direct. The TY-140 is a PWM general purpose cooling fan that has been initially designed with 120 mm mounting holes to maximize compatibility. The company advertises its “Enhanced Hyper-Flow Bearing (EHFB)” engine as consistent and highly reliable, without any further information regarding its design and/or mechanics.
The fan mounting mechanism is strange, with the fan having to sit on rubber standoffs that need to be inserted into small cutouts on the fin array. It is not possible to mount the fan without these standoffs. Hopefully the rubber that they are made of will last for several years, but replacements may be necessary for people who keep their hardware for more than a few years or if they are lost. (Tip: Pieces of large drinking straws do work as a temporary solution)
The large difference between this cooler than the others in this roundup review (and also its major upgrade over the previous version) is the design of its base. Instead of having a contact plate coming in contact with the CPU and the heatpipes attached to it, the heatpipes of the True Spirit 140 Direct are in direct contact with the CPU itself. The top part of the base is made of machined aluminum and only provides mechanical cohesion and retention bracket support.
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CheapSushi - Thursday, May 25, 2017 - link
I wish there was also a passive test. So we can actually see how that heatsinks on their own performance to gauge the efficiency and quality of the designs themselves. The fans add another variable. Maybe even have a case fan for some airflow. I'd like to see how the heatsink itself does because there can be situations where maybe there is a superior heatsink design here but the company has a poor fan compared to another competitor. The competitors fan could just be superior, thus brute forcing the better temps. How would you really tell? There's no passive test.bug77 - Thursday, May 25, 2017 - link
Hm, why doesn't the article list the weight of these coolers? When they're so large they tend to add quite some torque to the motherboard, so weight should be an important criterion when choosing between these.doyll - Thursday, May 25, 2017 - link
Great testing! TRUE Spirit 140 Direct did exceptionally well for an economy cooler. Would be interesting to see how the TRUE Spirit 140 Power, Archon IB-E X2 and some of the other Thermalright coolers. The PH-TC14S definitely is not a great cooler.fanofanand - Thursday, May 25, 2017 - link
The fact you threw in the Wraith cooler makes me sooooo happy! I was hemming and hawing between 1600 and 1600x with the free cooler thrown in being a nice boost for the 1600. Seeing that the better coolers show a pronounced improvement in most cases tells me that free cooler shouldn't be the decider.Peichen - Thursday, May 25, 2017 - link
Thermalright is like Cooler Master, simple design that reduce cost but performs well. People that have been OCing for the last 20 years know Thermalright's design is usually test provenLeyawiin - Thursday, May 25, 2017 - link
I own two of the original (smooth surface) Thermalright True Spirit 140. Its a very good cooler in many respects save for the fan mounting system. They have the most weak, fiddly wire fan mounts I've ever seen. Plus the rubber anti-vibration pads they were using back then simply won't stay on. I decided with later builds to use Noctua in subsequent builds and even though they're about a quarter to a third more expensive its worth it just for their great mounting system. Plus they regularly send me emails to remind me that all my coolers from them are eligible for free mounting hardware for new sockets. No other company that I know of does that.azrael- - Monday, May 29, 2017 - link
I think that one important aspect of any cooler review should be the *weight* of the cooler.Considering that in most system configurations the motherboard is mounted vertically and coolers are hanging off the motherboard, you really don't want them to be too heavy. Even though the cooler may be securely attached to the motherboard the heavier it is the more stress it exerts on the motherboard. Preferably, I don't want mine to weigh much in excess of 500g.
azrael- - Monday, May 29, 2017 - link
I think that one important aspect of any cooler review should be the *weight* of the cooler.Considering that in most system configurations the motherboard is mounted vertically and coolers are hanging off the motherboard, you really don't want them to be too heavy. Even though the cooler may be securely attached to the motherboard the heavier it is the more stress it exerts on the motherboard. Preferably, I don't want mine to weigh much in excess of 500g.
darkbreeze - Friday, February 21, 2020 - link
Quote - Nevertheless, the thermal performance of the NH-U14S is significantly superior as well, especially when the cooler needs to handle a high thermal load.Yes, I realize this thread is three years old, however, having come across it I couldn't let that blatantly wrong observation from the review go uncontested when the reviews own results CLEARLY show the Thermalright True Spirit Direct 140 having a lower overall rise over ambient than any of the other three coolers.
How do you figure the Noctua has better performance if your own results show that the Thermalright does? Why did NOBODY notice that, and comment on it?
If Crashman or Garrett over at TH had done that, they'd have been ripped to pieces.
Oxford Guy - Tuesday, January 4, 2022 - link
I just read TH’s Best Coolers for 2022 article and the first one in the list is a Cooler Master that fails against the competition in every metric, according to the data in the site’s own reviews.