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Thermalright MST-9775


Date
: 08/20/06 – 05:02:40 AM

Author
:

Category
: Cooling

Page 1 : Index

Manufacturer
: Thermalright Inc

Price
: $23.95 (Sidewinder)

My third and final heatsink review this month will be on the Thermalright MST-9775. Many of us have been exposed to Thermalright products in one way or another. Not too long ago Jody checked out the Ultra-120, Michael reviewed the HR-01 and Nick from Crazy PC was kind enough to give away another Ultra-120 in our July contest.

What makes the MST-9775 different from the past coolers I have looked at is the intended market for this cooler. When compared to the likes of the Ultra 120 or the XP-120, the MST-9775 is certainly different. The surface area is significantly less and the price is probably a fraction of the coolers mentioned above. Our MST-9775 has been tailor made to for replacing the stock Intel cooler with a quieter variation. Let's see how it does.

Page 2 : Package

Thermalright packages the cooler in its standard brown box. This really makes shipping out from vendors easy, they can smack on a UPS label and it's good to go.

Apart from the company logo, there's a sticker occupying one of the sides indicating the product model and the UPC bar code.

That sums of the package for the MST-9775 so let's go over the product features and move on with the review.

Page 3 : Specifications

As I mentioned earlier, this product is geared towards users looking to replace their stock Intel cooler. To Thermalright this should be your typical ma and pa computer cooler!

There's not a whole lot of specifications, but you can find everything on this page. Thermalright has stated a MST-9775 short version is available. That particular cooler has no more than a 15mm height allowing it to be squeezed into just about any mATX case. My guess is the reduction in heatpipe length to reduce the height.

Here are the features outlined by Thermalright:

For under $25, Thermalright has put together a decent little package for system integrators. It'll be interesting to see how well the cooler actually performs on my overclocked D930.

Page 4 : Package Contents

Despite the very simple exterior of the package, Thermalright did not skip out on the protection of the contents. Surrounding the heatsink is almost a full inch of foam padding.

Apart from the heatsink and fan, the remaining components include a manual, a syringe of thermal paste and a bezel sticker.

In addition to surrounding the heatsink and fan with foam, they've even wrapped it in plastic. Thermalright has definitely done the right thing in terms of properly packaging a cooler. A lot of companies could learn from these folks.

The first thing I took a peak at was the base of the cooler. It was machine cut and finished flat. You can still see the machine marking and how there isn't really a good reflective shine to the bottom. To some this is an issue, but some good thermal paste will fix that issue or if you have an afternoon to spare and some elbow grease to use up, give it a good lap.

One thing crucial to computer assemblers is simplicity. Nothing is worse than having to remove a motherboard in order to add a back plate or to change out the stock one. Thermalright will be using the push-pin system invented by Intel for the socket 775 motherboards. There's absolutely no additional hardware required and if you can mount the stock cooler, you'll have no problems mounting the MST-9775.

I'm already thinking that if Thermalright extended the length of each fin so it is twice as long, the performance would probably be a lot better. If they coupled it with some more heat pipes, this is going to start looking like a 92mm variation of the Thermaltake Big Typhoon. The real question isn't a series of what-if scenarios, but a matter of what-is. We already have the cooler as designed by Thermalright, so what is the performance going to be like? We'll find out shortly!

A side profile shows the gap between the fins and how the heat pipes are aligned.

The 92mm fan on top of the heatsink has a Thermalright label on the motherboard, but turning the fan around reveals the true make and model. We'll cover in more detail the process of fan installation later in the review.

The model number (DT1209LBHP) and the manufacturer, Talent Top LTD, are both cleared stated on the label but Google couldn't come up with anything useful.

Moving onwards, we get a good look at the base portion of the cooler. The two heatpipes run through this portion and the mounting plate will fall into the bunker.

Installation looks to be remarkably easy, so let's get that out of the way.

Page 5 : Installation

The one thing about using the same retention system as the stock cooler is that anyone and everyone who knows how to assemble a basic computer will be able to pop in the MST-9775. For installation purposes, I will be demonstrating it on my Foxconn 975X7AA while the testing will be done on my Asus P5WD2.

The first step is to apply some thermal paste over processor and rest the heatsink over top of it. You will then want to slip the mounting base between the heatpipes place mate the plates dome with the bunker on the heatsink.

Much like the stock cooler, you'll want to turn all the tabs to unlock them and allow them to lock into place once pushed through the motherboard.

After a few pushes, the cooler is in and secured in place. The next thing we're going to cover is a run through on how to remove the 92mm fan from the heatsink. The wire frame design is completely tool-less and very strong.

Simply pick up the corners of the frame and lift it out of the boss that would normally be filled with a screw.

Do the same on the other side and your fan has now been removed. Here's a bare shot of the cooler:

One thing I noticed is the soldering done onto the heatpipe to the fins.

This process has been done to improve thermal conduction and one I think will help aid the Thermalright cooler. Since the heat is being transferred by the heatpipes, I would have liked to see the heat pipes enter closer to the middle of the fins. This would allow for more heat dissipation all around the fin and not just closer to the top side. Second, I think it would have been beneficial if the heatpipe was extended and a second pass through the fins was done. However, cost would have certainly been increased and manufacturing would certainly be more difficult for Thermalright.

Using what we have, let's see how well the cooler performs against the stock Intel cooler.

Page 6 : Performance

Testing a CPU cooler is pretty simple. I'll first leave you with the system details:

I started the test out by going into the BIOS and monitoring the temperatures for five minutes after the cooler was installed. This was to make sure the unit was properly mounted. Once that was done, I booted into Windows and stressed the system using two instances Stress Prime 2004. I let this run for 12 hours and then turned off the computer for another 12. After that, I loaded up an instance of the Asus system monitoring software for temperature readings and fired up another two instances of Stress Prime. After three hours of testing, I took the CPU and motherboard temperatures. I shut off Stress Prime and let the system idle for three hours before taking the readings again. I followed this procedure three times over three days and averaged the results afterwards. The room temperature was a balmy 25C for all tests.

Here are the results:

As anticipated, the difference between the stock Intel cooler and the MST-9775 was pretty small when looking specifically at the processor temperatures – two degrees was shaved off. If we look at the motherboard temperature, Thermalright is correct in saying the MST-9775 provides much better cooling as we do see a drop by a couple of degrees. Where the real advantage came was when we compared the noise levels. The stock cooler is quiet loud when the fully throttled but the MST-9775 with an RPM of 2500 remains
much quieter
. Your stock video card fan or chipset fan would create just as much noise.

Page 7 : Conclusion

Another review comes and goes at Overclockers Online and Thermalright has developed a product that isn't marketed at the enthusiast scene. While we're usually keen on seeing high performance high costing coolers from these fine folks, this is a change that will be welcomed by many of us who build and sell computers for customers. We'll often hear, and I paraphrase, "give me something powerful, but quiet and that doesn't cost a lot" and we'll be torn between two worlds. Thermalright has elegantly designed a cooler that'll satisfy that niche market.

The performance was as expected. One cannot expect a sixty dollar performance out of something that only cost twenty-five. With a few modifications I think this cooler could easily become a power house without too much additional cost. Will I see such a change in the near future by Thermalright, I think so. Quality engineering is something Thermalright has always done well.

It would be nice for Thermalright to further develop this cooler and design one that'll suit the AMD masses. With single and dual core AMD processors dropping like rocks, we could really see high powered machines at a budget price now looking for a solid budget cooler.

Advantages

Very affordable
Quiet
Compact and light
Short version will fit even the smaller HTPC & cube cases

Disadvantages

Only socket 775 supported
Performance marginally better than stock

Overclockers Online would like to thank Thermalright for making this review possible.