Socket-A / Socket-370 Cooler Roundup - July 2000
by Tillmann Steinbrecher on July 14, 2000 7:57 PM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
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.
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.
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 |
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Disadvantages |
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