Socket-A Heat Sink Comparison

Date Reviewed: November 6, 2001
Reviewed By: Jason Rabel
Companies: Thermaltake, Thermal Integration, Millennium Thermal, Fortis Technologies, VantecUSA, Dynatron, Swiftech

What's on the platter?:

In this November roundup we have a lot of new heat sinks that have come out recently. Each company has taken their own unique approach to hopefully solve your cooling problem. We have a mixture of copper, aluminum, 60mm fans, 70mm fans, 80mm fans, TIM's, silver compound, and much much more! We compare their raw cooling power, noise, cost, ease of installation, and also looks. There are a total of 11 heat sinks that are being compared, and with so much variation, there is surely one that will fit your needs and your budget!

It should be noted that most of these heat sinks can be used for P3 applications as well as Duron & Athlon/AthlonMP/AthlonXP processors.

Please welcome the following new heat sinks to the lineup:

• Thermal Integration TI-V77L

• Millennium Thermal Glaciator II

• Fortis Technologies A91

• Fortis Technologies A92

• Fortis Technologies A102

• Thermaltake Volcano 7

Some previous coolers that we have used before and are including are:

• Vantec CCK-6035D

• Vantec CCK-6027D

• Dynatron DY1206BH-638

• Swiftech MCX-370

• Thermosonic Thermoengine

Also, before we begin, my thanks go out to Utah PC, CrazyPC, AZZO, Thermaltake, Thermal Integration, Millennium Thermal, VantecUSA, and Dynatron for supplying the heat sinks used in this comparison. Without their support, none of this would of been possible, so please check out their web sites for more info on these heat sinks and more.

Thermal Integration TI-V77L:

Thermal Integration's newest heat sink like is the TI-V77 series. There are currently 3 models which feature different fans. The model we received was the TI-V77L which is the middle of the line in terms of fan CFM ratings. While it is rated at 42.5 dBA, it sound much much quieter, more along the lines of the Volcano 7 which averages about 35 dBA, at least that is my opinion.

• TI-V77K - 25 CFM / 70x70x10mm / 30.6 dBA

• TI-V77L - 38 CFM / 70x70x15mm / 42.5 dBA

• TI-V77N - 46 CFM / 70x70x25mm / 41.0 dBA

The heat sink itself is a design kind of like the original Thermoengine, but many improvements have been made. First, the heat sink is still mostly aluminum but it has a copper core where the processor comes into contact with it. The overall heat sink is shorter, but it has much wider dimensions. The clip mechanism is very unique, it has a lever which you lift up, then you put each clip over the tabs on the motherboard, then you lower the lever and it puts the proper tension on the processor, VERY user friendly, both to put on and take off.

The fan itself is an odd-ball size for most overclockers, it is a 70mm (most of us are used to 60mm or 80mm) fan which puts out a solid 38CFM. Having the larger size fan makes it much quieter than the traditional 60mm Delta fan that we are all used to. I wish they would of sent along the "N" model since that is rated for 46CFM, I'm sure we would of seen a nice performance improvement over the "L" model that we tested.

The heat sink was very well packaged in its own retail box, you can see from the picture that it has quite a bit of foam to protect it from damage while shipping. Also it is worth noting that the heat sink comes with a high quality TIM pre-installed on the base, all you have to do it remove the plastic film then you can put it on the processor. However the TIM is a single use only, after it has been heated you must remove the material and use regular thermal compound. The TIM was very easy to remove (I've seen some heat sinks out there where it can be a major pain to remove the used TIM). Thermal Integration also supplies a packet of regular thermal compound just incase you do have to remove your heat sink. It should be noted that testing with the TIM vs. testing with Arctic Silver II yielded only about half a degree difference (numbers listed in the results was with the ASII).

(Click on any image to get a closeup of the whole row)

(Click on any image to get a closeup of the whole row)

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