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Fortis A101 & A102 Heatsinks


Date
: 09/18/01 – 02:31:50 AM

Author
:

Category
: Cooling

Page 1 : Index

Manufacturer : Fortis Technology
Price: around $30

Introduction

Here we are again with another heatsink review. This time we have a closer look at one of the many entirely new heatsinks on the market … the Fortis A101 and A102 HSFs! As the name already implies, these sinks are made by a new company called Fortis Technology. I don’t blame anyone for never hearing about this company because I had the same feeling when I first heard this name. May I present you some company info? Well, Fortis Technology was founded in 1998 by a couple of guys like you and me who (and I quote their website) ‘were tired of disappointments with the so called high-technology’. That’s the main reason why they started this company. And frankly, I can see their point! Can you? Company policy is to bring the best products at the lowest price! We’ll see if they succeeded in making this policy come true in just a few minutes folks.

As I said before, we’re about to have a look at the performance and quality of the Fortis A101 and A102 heatsinks. The Fortis A102 is supposed to be Fortis Tech’s current flagship, so this review should become very interesting, shouldn’t it? ;)

But first let’s explain how we torture the heatsinks around here …

Testing Method

Here’s how we test all heatsinks @ O … We tested each heatsink for about an hour with RC5 and Prime95 running together with other common used software like email, ICQ and stuff. RC5 and Prime95 is used to max out the CPU power and to let the CPU generate as much heat as possible. After an hour, we measured the temperature with that nifty little program called Motherboard Monitor. The next step is to turn of all the programs that were running during the stress test and see how the temperature evolves after about half an hour. That’s when we measure the idle temps. I’d like to note that the HQ45 case of our testbed was closed and no additional case cooling was turned on. By the way … this is how we always test the HSF’s around here!

Page 2 : Specifications

Specifications

Fortis A101 Heatsink

• Fan dimension : 60 x 60 x25mm
• Rated Voltage : 12V
• Rated Current : 0.21amp
• Fan Speed : 5000 RPM
• Air : 26.32CFM
• Noise Level : 34.28dBA
• Heat Sink Dimension : 62 x 62 x 58mm
• Total Weight : 371g
• Heatsink Material Aluminum alloy 1050
• Copper Base : 5 mm thick pure copper

Fortis A102 Heatsink

• Fan dimension :60 x 60 x25mm
• Rated Voltage : 12V
• Rated Current : 0.65amp
• Speed : 7000 RPM
• Air : 36CFM
• Noise Level : 43dBA
• Heat Sink Dimension : 62 x 62 x 58mm
• Total Weight : 371g
• Heatsink Material Aluminum alloy 1050
• Copper Base 5 mm thick pure copper

Let’s analyse these numbers, shall we?

The Specs Explained

I guess you already noticed that the A101 and A102 coolers from Fortis aren’t much different from eachother. They both use the same heatsink and retention clip. In fact, the only difference between both coolers is the fan speed. Like I said in the introduction, the A102 is Fortis’ flagship. The heatsink is equiped with a 7000RPM fan while the A101 only has a 5000RPM fan. There, now you know the main difference … let’s take a closer look at the heatsink itself!

The aluminum A101 & A102 heatsinks both measure 62mm x 62mm x 58mm. That’s pretty big for a heatsink, if you think about it. The sink has about 25 thin fins and a rather large full copper base. It’s no less than 5mm thick, folks! The many thin fins increase the surface area significantly which is very good! The only thing that bothers me about that copper base and the heatsink in general is the quality of the bottom. Do you remember that the Swiftech MCX370-0A HSF (we reviewed it here last week) had a sweet and smooth bottom? Well, these Fortis heatsinks we review today just don’t have that nicely polished bottom. As you can see on the pics, the copper base looks a bit scratched. See for yourselves if you don’t believe me!

If we look at the fan on our Fortis heatsinks, we don’t see a difference between both fans on the outside, but we can hear the difference when both of them are running. Like I already mentioned some paragraphes ago, the A101 is equiped with a 5000RPM fan. The 60mm x 60mm x 25mm black fan is capable of delivering about 26CFM of airflow. This doesn’t look much, but the fan is actually pretty quiet and you know you can’t have much airflow AND a low noise level at the same time :( Because Fortis Technology knows that there are quite a lot of hardcore overclockers out there, they also chose to release the A101 cooler with a 7000RPM fan with a maximum airflow of 36CFM instead of the 5000RPM fan and its 26CFM. The 7000RPM version is called the A102. Of course, this 7000RPM fan is much louder than the 5000RPM version and could be annoying for some, but it also delivers more than 10CFM of airflow more than the slower brother. Both fans have a 3 pin power connector with RPM monitoring capability! Later on in this review, we’ll see if the A102 is really that much better than the A101. It should be, shouln’t it??

The clipping mechanism is not much different from that of most other coolers on the market today. What I do like to note is that these Fortis HSFs both have the same large ‘oversized’ clip. This ‘giant’ clip allows you to install and remove the heatsink with the utmost ease, even without a screwdriver or any other tools.

One thing I almost forgot to tell you is that these two cooler ship with superb silver thermal paste instead of the usual white paste you get with most heatsinks.

So far the main specs of our Fortis coolers. How can we install and remove this heatsink without crushing the CPU core or destroying the mainboard? Well, check out the next page to find out …

Page 3 : Installating & Removing

Installing & Removing

Although the installation process of these Fortis coolers isn’t much different from the occasional heatsinks, I will tell you briefly how it should be done. Is that ok for you guys? Well, here we go …

You simply put a bit of the silver thermal paste (supplied in the package) onto the core of the CPU and on the all copper bottom of the heatink. Then you put the heatsink on top of the CPU core and attach the first clip on the CPU socket. Finally, you just have to push the large retention clip down to attach the heatsink. The A101 or A102 should be secured now!

Removing the A101 and A102 heatsinks is even easier than installing them. I know it’s hard to believe, but I assure you it’s very true! ;) You just have to push the clip again with your thumb and the heatsink will come off. That’s all there is to it!

If you haven’t fallen asleep yet, we can now continue with the testresults. And I must say, I was surprised after the tests!

Page 4 : The Tests

Testing

Test System :

- AOpen HQ45 case
-
AMD Athlon 1.3GHz @ 1.3GHz (1.75v) – 71W

- A non-conductive shim was used to protect the CPU (Supplied by CPUfx)
- Fortis A101 & A102 coolers
- Swiftech MC370-0A cooler
- Swiftech MCX370-0A cooler
- Vantec CCK-6035D cooler
- OCZ Gladiator cooler
- Abit KT7A-RAID Mainboard
- 256MB OCZ Performance Max SDRAM
- Hercules 3D Prophet 4500 Kyro II videocard
- IBM 20GB UDMA100 7200rpm hard drive
- Western Digital 45GB UDMA100 7200rpm hard drive
- Windows 2000 Pro + VIA 4in1 4.33 Official

Well, we’re witnessing some quite impressive cooling power here. Fortis’ flagship, the A102 with 7000RPM fan is able to cool down the AMD Athlon 1.3GHz CPU to an incredible 45C. After testing the A102 with the stock 7000RPM, we decided to equip the heatsink with a black Delta fan which made the CPU run even 1C cooler to 44C. These temperatures make the A102 perform on par with high performance heatsinks like the much more expensive Swiftech MCX370-0A HSF and only 2C warmer than a stock Vantec CCK-6035D. Does that sound unbelievable or what? The Fortis A101 with 5000RPM fan does a slightly worse job. It only managed to keep the temperature on the 1.3GHz Athlon down to 49C. This isn’t bad at all considering the fact that it has a fan that produces about 10CFM less airflow than the 7000RPM model.

Page 5 : Conclusion

Summary & Conclusion

Good

- High Performance Cooling (A102)
- Pretty Quiet (A101)
- RPM Monitoring
- 5mm thick Copper Base
- Sweet clipping Mechanism (No Tools)
- Silver Thermal Paste Included
- Nice Price/Performance Ratio

Bad

- Hard To Get
- Fan Noise (A102)
- Doesn’t look all that sexy
- No Fan Guard

Well, I was impressed by these new heatsinks from Fortis Technology to say the least! Especially the A102 with the 7000RPM fan has stolen my heart today. No seriously peeps, this HSF is a true high performance cooler and can cool down every highly overclocked socket370 and socketA CPU. You name it, the Fortis A102 will cool it. Together with the rather cheap price ($30), the ‘no-tools’ retention clip and the copper base, this A102 deserves a recommandation from O. The 5000RPM A101 cooler is a nice medium performance cooler but didn’t show us anything special like its ‘faster’ brother. We will hear more from Fortis Technology in the near future, I’m sure of that!