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Introduction:
First a little about the company,
Thermalright, Inc.
They are best known as End PC Noise. This next blurb is from
their website on their company structure:
“Thermalright specializes in the design and manufacture of a
wide array of cooling systems and modules for the
information communication technology (ICT) industries. Our
CPU cooler line of products is designed with a diverse group
of end users in mind; as such, our products are suitable in
a variety of distribution channels. Thermalright employees
the top-notch designers and use advance testing equipment
and process that meet the stringent testing specifications
of Intel and AMD. Our people and our process are ISO-9000 certified. We work only with the leading component vendors of
the world to ensure the best quality to our customers.” ~
more
info
If you don't know who
Thermalright is you really need to read this review.
Thermalright have been around for many years and they
produce some of the best known heatsinks on the market. If you
are aware of Thermalright, then you probably know of the
famous XP-120 heatsink and the older SLK models. I've
reviewed many products from Thermalright in the past and
the overall quality and performance is excellent. Let's now see
what the Thermalright HR-01-775 (High Riser) Passive CPU Cooler
can do!
Packaging:
Thermalright always takes care when shipping products. This
one comes in a heavy cardboard box and is protected with
Styrofoam.
Also note, the heatsink is further protected with a heavy
plastic bag and a Styrofoam spacer to keep the socket clip
in place.
 
Included
with this product is a Installation Guide, Thermalright
sticker, Thermal Paste, and the
Heatsink.
Specifications:
I will
be looking at the
HR-01-775 model; however, the only difference between
this model and the
HR-01-K8
is the socket clips. Motherboard compatibility of the
HR-01-775 is Intel: Pentium-4 LGA775 3.2 GHz and above.
Motherboard compatibility of the HR-01-K8 is AMD: Athlon64
FX 3200+ (socket 939/940) /Athlon64 3200+ (socket 754) and
above. The HR-01-K8 also fits the Intel Pentium-4 socket 478 up to 3.2 GHz
but requires a P4-478 Heatsink Retention Kit.
Also, the HR-01-775 comes with a 120mm Fan Duct, the HR-01-K8
doesn't. For installation instructions of the 120mm Fan Duct
click here. Remember, in order to use this fan duct your
case's 120mm fan will have to be in
alignment with the CPU.
A closer look:
This is a passive heatsink, meaning it doesn't have a
fan so therefore it's completely silent. Keep in mind
though, the
120mm Fan Duct uses the case's 120mm fan to increase cooling
performance. Also note that this cooler does not have a
place to mount a fan directly on it. That's an option I
would have liked to see. Active coolers on the other hand have
some type of fan attached to the heatsink. The advantage of
active coolers is they have better cooling
performance but can tend to be loud. Of course that would
depend on the fan which is used. For the most part, passive
heatsinks are not intended for overclocking.
The heatsink measures
110(L) x 60(W) x 159.5(H)mm
and weighs in at a fairly heavy 525 grams. As you can see
from the below image, it's quite large. This is not
surprising since it's
required to cool today's fastest processors.
The heatsink itself is all aluminum except for the heatpipes
and base which is nickel plated copper. There are many fins and 8
long heatpipes which thread through these fins. It has a
smooth base which will allow for great contact between it
and the CPU. In some cases the base is so smooth it's
reflective, that's not the case here. Sometimes if the base
is super smooth the heatsink can tend to stick to the CPU
and this makes it harder to remove. Generally though,
the smoother the better.
So what are heatpipes? Heatpipes have been around for many
years and I suspect they will be around for many to come.
They are not only used in heatsinks/coolers but are making
their way into gaming consoles, motherboards and even household
appliances. So, hail heatpipes!
So, how
do they work? It's a very simple technology that uses
vaporizable liquid in a hollow cylinder. In this case, the
liquid absorbs heat and it is rapidly carried away from the hot CPU
to the upper fins. From there the fins dissipate the heat.
Installation of this heatsink on the Socket T (775) is
literally, a snap. Remember though, when installing or removing any
heatsink/cooler please take your time and be very careful,
otherwise you could damage the CPU or motherboard.
Testing:
For testing this product I
used the following test setup:
Motherboard: ASUS P5WD2 Premium Motherboard
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 520J (2.8GHz)
PSU:
SilverStone ST60F Modular SLI Power Supply
Video Cards: BFG 7800 GT Video Card
Hard Drives: Seagate 80GB HDD
Memory: OCZ EL
DDR2 PC2-4200 Gold Gamer eXtreme XTC Edition Memory
Sound Card: Creative Audigy 2 ZS Sound Card
There will be two tests,
fours results.
The first benchmark is taken when the system is at idle for
15 minutes with and without the 120mm Fan Duct. The second
taken is when the system is at maximum load
for 15 minutes using Prime95 with and without the 120mm Fan
Duct. Also note, the system was not overclocked and the room
temperature was 22c.
Conclusion:
When looking for a heatsink or cooler there are a few
things you want to look for. Normally look for one which is
copper or copper/aluminum combination, but this will
increase the cost. This heatsink is all aluminum
except for the heatpipes and base which is nickel plated
copper. It also
utilizes 8 towering heatpipes and countless fins. This more
than makes up for it not being all copper, although if it were
all copper the performance would probably be even better. That
being said, the performance of this heatsink is excellent
and that's what counts. It's very impressive that a passive
heatsink can keep a fast Socket T (775) cool because they
get really hot. Speaking of hot, what about using this
heatsink for overclocking. I would only suggest using it if
you can implement the 120mm Fan Duct in your case. Adding
this duct tremendously increases cooling performance at
maximum load.
Pros:
- Excellent performance
- Fan Duct for added performance
- Heatpipes galore
- Installation is a snap
- Looks great
Cons:
- Pricy
- Not all copper
- No fan clips
- Will not fit some cases
- Only fits the Socket T (HR-01-775)
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