Thermaltake Polo 735
Jun 18th, 2004 | By Archive
Thermaltake Polo 735
Date
: 06/18/04 – 03:35:58 PM
Author
:
Category
: Cooling
Page 1 : Introduction
Manufacturer:
Thermaltake
Price:
29.95 @ Jab-Tech.com
Thermaltake is a company that anyone who has thought about building their own computer has heard about. Although they have only been on the scene for five years, they are probably one of the best case and cooling manufacturers around. At Overclockers Online, we have seen some of their work. Steven has looked at the old Hardcano 2 & 5 as well as the Super Orb, Mini Super Orb and Volcano II. Ive probably forgotten about some of the round ups weve done too. O well, on to what I have! The Polo 735 also known as the A2144 arrived at my door intact.
This thing is much larger and heavier than it looks in any picture! Its packed in a box filled with Styrofoam peanuts. You wont have to worry about Jab-Techs packaging job as it is top notch.
Lets crack open all the packaging and take a look. I spy with my little eye
Page 2 : Specifications
The Polo 735 fits into the Combo Cool Series and as the primary feature, apart from extreme cooling, it fits the three primary platforms. Heres a break down of the specifications.
Compatibility:
Intel P4 478 Prescott FMB1.5 3.6 Ghz, AMD Athon XP up to 3200+, AMD Athlon 64
Heatsink Dimension:
82×65.6x49mm spotting 66 fins
Heatsink Material:
High density pure copper
Fan:
80x80x32mm
Bearing Type:
2 Ball Bearing
Life Expectation:
80,000 Hours
Rated Voltage:
12V
Started Voltage:
7V
Rated Current:
0.08-0.45A
Power Input:
0.96-5.4W
Power Connector:
4 Pin
Fan Speed:
2000 ± 10% RPM @ 20ºC to 5500 ± 10% RPM @ 55ºC
Max Airflow:
26.50 CFM @ 20ºC to 72.92 CFM @ 55ºC
Max Air Pressure:
3.29 mm H20 @ 20ºC to 9.06mm H20 @ 55ºC
Noise:
21 dBA @ 2000 RPM to 48 dBA @ 5500 RPM
Weight:
732 g
You will notice a few things about the Polo 735. Let me first start with the fan. The design is slightly different than most others. Its a nice ball bearing fan, but you will notice it only has
three
blades!
This supposedly increases air flow and reduces turbulence. All in all, they are trying to say you will get better performance by using this new feature as the air flow is centralized. There will only be one way to tell!
Like most other Thermaltake products, there are tools that will let you have a bit more control over these monstrous fans. Your first option is max speed, 72.92 CFM @ 5500 RPM generating 48 dBA of noise, temperature controlled or manually controlled.
If you want to manually control the fan, you have two options for that too. You can use a PCI slot or a 3.5 drive bay. It all depends on which one you can free up and which one you think will be more convenient.
Now on to the most important part of the Polo 735: the heatsink. There are 66 fins soldered onto the heatsink and it weighs a fair bit. Soldering isnt the most effective method in creating fins, I would of preferred skived fins. Soldered fins will result in a minor loss of performance but costs less to manufacture. But heck, not everything is perfect and you can only expect so much for thirty dollars.
If you look at the bottom, its fairly flat. Theres little reason to worry about getting a poor contact between the die and the base of the sink.
I placed a screw beside the base and took a photo without using the flash on my camera. The reflection is not very clear, but its not impossible to see.
Page 3 : Installation
Apart from having three control methods for the 1 fan, you also have 3 supported mounting platforms for the one heatsink! You get all the tools for mounting any of the three systems. Thermaltake has some pretty pictures demonstrating how to install the fan. So Ill just give you those images and comment on my process.
It didnt take very long for me to have the unit up and running on my system, about 10 minutes and I was good to go. I removed the fan to add the appropriate mounting clip. Added a thin layer of Arctic Silver III and mounted the heatsink. Clipped it down to the socket, screwed the fan down, and I was set.
I decided to install it on my IWill KK266-A motherboard sporting a Duron 1200 processor with VCore at 1.94 V. Here are the rest of the specifications:
2*256 MB RAM
ATi Radeon 7000 32 MB
1 10/100 NIC
1 Sunon Intake Fan
350 Watt Dual Fan Enermax PSU
Generic Steel Chassis
Page 4 : Testing
Im going to compare this fan to the stock heatsink fan packaged with typical AMD machines, and my asetek watercooling kit. As well, I will run the Polo 735 fan at max RPM and lowest RPM that way to make it visible what the high and low temperatures are.
To keep the system at full load I ran both Folding and RC5. Room temperature hovered around 22.5 to 23.5 ºC throughout testing.
Temperature
Sound
At the lowest RPM, you cannot hear the fan run. At the same time, the temperature was extremely high! Although its still below the maximum die temperature, I would not recommend this setting. With the fan set to the highest RPM this thing is a beast. The temperatures were good, but I would recommend you invest in those Z5300s and keep the MP3s blasting!
Page 5 : Conclusion
All in all, the Polo 735 is a fairly solid heatsink. I was quite happy with its performance and its already moved into to my main desktop replacing the aging Vantec Aeroflow. I wouldnt mind having a quieter fan at max RPM, but with the two control knobs you have 100% control.
Advantages
Inexpensive
Easy setup
Good performance with lots of control
Disadvantages
At max RPM LOUD
At low RPM poor performance