AnandTech: UPDATE: Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme

Our Take

In revisiting the Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme we had the opportunity to compare performance results from a retail eXtreme to those we found in our initial review of the Ultra-120 eXtreme. We are very pleased to report that the retail Ultra-120 eXtreme performed in every way just like the prototype we tested.

The Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme is the best cooler tested so far at AnandTech. Our complaints with the prototype about the poor socket 775 adapter have also been addressed in the production cooler. The revised adapter makes mounting an eXtreme on a Core 2 Duo an easy task now.

However, we do wish Thermalright could make the socket 775 adapter just as rigid and secure as the current AM2 adapter for the eXtreme. Performance certainly didn't suffer with the new bracket, but it is always an uneasy feeling when you find you can still turn a mounted cooler, as you can with the eXtreme with the new bracket. A little more metal on the folding cross bars could make the 775 install just as secure as the AM2. Another alternative might be slightly repositioning the bends on the adapter for secure nesting with the cooler CPU base plate.

That is a small thing when you consider the larger picture, which is a cooler that performs better than any of the 21 heatpipe towers recently tested at AnandTech. The eXtreme cools better than anything else we have tested. It was also nice to be reminded in this test of how small the Ultra-120 eXtreme really is compared to most other tower coolers. It is just as wide, but the eXtreme is compact in thickness, and you can actually mount the cooler on a socket 775 from above, without having to perform contortions better suited to a gymnast just to mount the cooler.

The Thermalright mounts easily without the fan, and if you use a prop like a foam block on the bottom to hold the plate while screwing in the spring-loaded screws, you can mount the cooler by just unscrewing the board in your case, and leaving all the peripherals attached. The back plate has screw posts that extend through the motherboard and the thinner depth means you can actually reach the spring mounting screws with the cooler installed. We also found it easiest to install the fan wires before screwing the cooler down, so you're ready to pop in the fan as the final step.

We have quite a collection of 120mm fans at AnandTech these days, but we tested with the same Scythe S-FLEX fan used in the original tests. The SFF21F is still a nice balance of airflow and noise and it matches the Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme very well. We will test other fans with this cooler in our fan roundup, but until we have other hard evidence there are better fan solutions out there you certainly won't be disappointed with a Scythe S-FLEX on the eXtreme.

It is always a pleasure when reviewing a product turns into collaboration. The reviewers at AnandTech are first and foremost computer enthusiasts just like you are. We normally try to point out grave errors to manufacturers, and we try to mention smaller things that might be improved in our reviews of their products. When a manufacturer pays attention and makes corrections to a product it is clearly evidence they care about the users of their products. Thermalright corrected a problem socket 775 adapter before production, and contacted us with a final retail sample. That is one example of the attention to detail that is in the best interest of buyers.

Online prices of the Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme look to start at around $55 plus shipping, which is about $10 more than the standard Thermalright Ultra-120. Add to that the cost of a reasonable fan (unless you're going for silence and want to run fanless) and the total price with shipping is likely to be $70-$75. In contrast, the Tuniq Tower 120 will cost around $55 with the included fan, plus shipping. While spending 20% more relative to the Tuniq Tower might not seem like the best return on investment, for those looking to maximize system performance and reduce temperatures we feel the extra $10 is money well spent. Besides, when viewed as part of a typical enthusiast system, that $10 is probably less than a 1% increase in cost for a drop in CPU temperatures of up to 6C.