Socket-A / Socket-370 Cooler Roundup - July 2000

Name: Socket-A / Socket-370 Cooler Roundup - July 2000
Item: Socket-A / Socket-370 Cooler Roundup - July 2000
Author: Tillmann Steinbrecher

by Tillmann Steinbrecher on July 14, 2000 7:57 PM EST

Posted in
Cases/Cooling/PSUs

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Thermaltake Aircooler ("Golden ORB")

Thermaltake is a new heatsink manufacturer, but they have quickly became famous because of their innovative heatsink design. Their "Aircooler" looks similar to the heatsinks produced by HP Polarlogic, but is cheaper to produce, since it is extruded and not entirely CNC-milled.

Plycon were the first to import these heatsinks to the states, and they sold the Aircooler under the name "Golden Orb". The name stuck, and today everybody is selling the Thermaltake Aircooler as "Golden Orb".

This is definitely the most elegant heatsink in this roundup - so let's have a closer look at it:

The fan

The Golden Orb's fan is integrated into the heatsink. It is smaller than the fans of the other heatsinks in this comparison (with the exception of the Intel boxed heatsink), and it is relatively silent.

Installation

The Golden Orb's "twist on" clip is just as original as the rest of the heatsink. You place the heatsink on the CPU, give it a twist, and it holds firmly. With FCPGA CPUs, this works perfectly. With the (thicker) PPGA CPUs, installation is quite hard - brute force is required to twist the heatsink. But once it is installed, the clip holds very firmly.

Instead of including thermal grease or using a thermal pad, Thermaltake pre-applies a small layer of thermal compound to the heatsink. This is a great solution, since it combines the ease of installation of a thermal pad with the better heat transfer performance of thermal compound. However, if you'd like to install the heatsink on another CPU later, you will have to buy thermal compound separately (the pre-applied layer can only be used once, of course).

The Golden Orb is very compact - you will not lose a single DIMM slot when installing this cooler on a slotket.

Conclusion

Considering the small size, low price, and the fact that a smaller fan is involved, the performance of the Golden Orb is absolutely amazing. This clearly proves that Thermaltake's heatsink design is excellent.

The Golden Orb is definitely a great choice - maybe not for hardcore overclockers, but definitely for anyone who wants a heatsink with above-average performance and bearable noise level at a very good price.


Thermaltake Aircooler ("Golden Orb") at a glance
Fans: One Thermaltake, integrated into heatsink Fan rpm (measured): Weight: 215g Height: 50mm DIMM slots blocked on P3B-F: 0 (!) Price: around $14
Advantages
good cooling performance very good price/performance ratio not very loud does not block any DIMM slots when installed on a slotket looks very stylish
Disadvantages
hard to install on PPGA CPUs

Socket-A / Socket-370 Cooler Roundup - July 2000

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