The modern air cooling scene is today dominated by tower design heatsinks, and with massive Tuniq tower 120 and Thermalright Ultra 120 I personally thought how can this get any better with both these coolers giving excellent results.
Then comes the new avatar of Ultra 120, its big brother Ultra 120 Extreme. And the only difference between these two coolers is extra 2 heatpipes on the Extreme version making it a 6 heatpipe cooler.
After testing Tuniq tower 120 a while ago, i thought this is amazing performance, and did not think there will be another air cooler better than this one in the near future. It was already massive and did great job at cooling the processors.
So when i read the previews of this heatsink, I was little surprised and even though I decided to buy it, I was still apprehensive. So lets have a look at it shall we.
[Features and Specifications]
Features
# Quiet and powerful cooling due to multiple heat pipes and large aluminum fin area
# Proprietary bent winglet design to minimize airflow resistance
# Heat pipes soldered to base (nickel plated)and fins for optimum heat transfer
# Include both bolt-thru-board retention brackets for Intel and AMD
Technical Specifications
Dimension:L63.44 x W132 x H160.5 mm (heatsink only)
Weight:790g (heatsink only)
Recommended Fan
All 120mm Fan
Compatibility
INTEL: All Intel LGA775 processors
AMD: All AMD Socket AM2 Processors
Lets take a look at this cooler.
[The Package and the heatsink itself]
On the first look its typical Thermalright brown box with just Extreme written on it. Nothing special.
The cooler is neatly packed in a foam mold. All the mounting kits and thermal paste are stored on the side in separate white cardpaper box. This packaging is simple but very effective. The Heatsink survived the half globe shipment without even a single scratch on it.
Here is the cooler itself.
Here are the mounting kits. The cooler is AM2 and LGA775 compatible. S939 support is dropped by Thermalright
[Installation]
Installing this cooler requires you to remove the motherboard. For AM2 mounting you use the motherboard backplate + mounting bracket provided.
For LGA775 the motherboard backplate and X type mounting kit is provided.
Mounting instructions are available on Thermalright website and they are very detailed and accurate.
I strongly suggest anyone buying this heatsink to go through them.
They are located here : Thermalright
Mounting was relatively easy. I suggest you do not peal off the sticker that covers adhesive tape on the base of LGA 775 backplate. This causes the backplate to stick to the back of the board so tightly that it becomes very difficult to remove it in the future when needed.
Here is the Ultra 120 Extreme mounted on my P5N32 E SLI motherboard.
Be careful while placing the motherboard inside the case again as this is one very heavy heatsink. And sudden movement and drop will surely cause damage to the motherboard heatsink itself.
[Cooling performance.]
I tested the cooler under various conditions.
Lets have a look at them one by one.
For all the tests i set my Air conditioning to 28°C and increased vcore by 1 step than required vcore just to throw something more at the cooler and at the same time maintaining uniform conditions.
CPU used is Core 2 Duo E6600 @ 3.37Ghz , 1.46v.
Fan used was Thermaltake Blue LED 120mm at medium speed.(I know this fan sucks but my new fan is still in mail)
CPU was lapped but Ultra 120 extreme was left in factory conditions. Rest of my setup is in my sig.
1. Orthos small fft
Idle Temperature : 36°C
Load Temperature : 46°C
Delta = Load - Idle Temperature = 10°C
Screenshot of Idle Temperatures
Screenshot of Full Load Temperatures
2. World Community Grid Boinc client
Idle Temperature : 36°C
Load Temperature : 44°C
Delta = Load - Idle Temperature = 8°C
3. 3Dmark 2006
CPU test were run in loop
Idle Temperature : 36°C
Load Temperature : 44°C
Delta = Load - Idle Temperature = 8°C
4. Counter strike source
Made a local server with plenty of bots
Idle Temperature : 36°C
Load Temperature : 45°C
Delta = Load - Idle Temperature = 9°C
Follow up: I worte this 3 days ago and since then I have experimented with this HSF a bit. And even with AC completely off and room temperatures at 31-32°C ( external temp is in high 30s here) it never allowed processor to even touch 55°C. That was amazing to see as my Tuniq was not this good even in winter season.
[Conclusion]
With stock heatsink, the load temperatures while crunching WCG data were touching as high as 62-64°C and Orthos going all the way upto 65°C. And all that at just 3.24Ghz.
With this HSF CPU never even touched 50°C. This tells all you need to know about this heatsink.
I ran every single test 3 times and results were replicated very accurately. And as you can see the performance given by this cooler is nothing short of shocking as well as exceptionally good.
I was expecting good results, but to get soo much better result was totally unexpected.
I have had some very good cooler in the past, and this heatsink blew every single one into mediocre category. This is how good this heatsink really is.
There is no doubt that this is one of the best heatsink money can buy today.
The Good
- Unmatched performance
- Not too expensive compared to other tower coolers.
- Relatively easy to install.
- Overall Design is very flexible with multiple fan and orientation possibilities.
The Bad
- Very heavy and not easy to transport the case installed with this cooler.
- No S939 support.
Cost of the Heatsink : $65
Cost Inclusive of shipping : $95
Bought from : Sidewinder Computers - A huge selection of High Quality PC Modding and Cooling parts
Product Link : Ultimate CPU Cooling Solutions! USA
My rating
Performance : 10/10
Value: 9/10
Ease of installation : 8/10
Overall: 9/10
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Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Speederlander
that cost $30?! daym bro, u're serious.
I came from an NT9700
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