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Thermaltake Big Typhoon


Date
: 07/29/05 – 07:49:02 PM

Author
:

Category
: Cooling

Page 1 : Index

Manufacturer
: Thermaltake

Price
: 48.99 (Newegg)

It's been a while since Overclockers Online has had the opportunity to evaluate a Thermaltake product. Regarded as an industry leader in the case and cooling league, Thermaltake is notorious for its Orb designed coolers.

Today's review will be on one of their largest coolers –
Thermaltake Big Typhoon
. Many of you have heard of this cooler; it boasts heatpipes, aluminum fins and one massive 12cm fan!

Page 2 : Package

The Big Typhoon came in a clear plastic container, nothing all that special. Clearly visible is the large 12cm fan used to cool everything.

There isn't a lot of information on the front side, but a few pictures visually indicate some features and the platforms the Big Typhoon supports. There's not much space for Thermaltake to use since the cooler takes up so much of it.

On the back side, we get more information on the Big Typhoon as the specifications are shown. A couple of pictures of the cooler are also made available.

Cracking open the package, we can lift out the large cooler and isolate all the accessories. For starters, the base of the cooler is only protected by a piece of cardboard.

You can see the damage done on the cardboard by the base of the cooler. Without any protective seal, this sort of damage could easily scratch the base and cause imperfections. No one said cardboard doesn't scratch….

Inside the package, we have a number of small accessories. Two instruction pamphlets are provided: one solely for a Socket A installation and another for a 4-in-1 solution.

A number of support plates can be seen at the top of the page while various nuts and bolts are to the right.

Turn to the next page for the Big Typhoon product specifications.

Page 3 : Specifications

Copied directly from our good friends at Thermaltake:

Here are some tasty features for you to note:

Page 4 : Package Contents

We'll complete the rest of the package by taking a detailed look at the physical cooler.
The overall body is very large and the gap between the base of the cooler and the fins is protected by a sponge. For maximum performance, you'll want to remove this piece. ;)

The sponge covers up the retention plates, if you damage this area the cooler will become a challenge to install.

All six heatpipes start at the base and work their way up to the fins. The incline is done at a gradual angle until a 12cm fan can be installed. This is a good compromise in achieving the longest length of heatpipe available without making it too big or ridiculously small.

The heatpipes end at the aluminum fins of the cooler.

Thermaltake attempted to maximize the surface area for cooling with a wavy bottom. Such small ripples lead me to think that the actual purpose was for aesthetics or perhaps straight sheets of aluminum posed as a finger hazard. Better performance could have been achieved if the entire fin was wavy and not just the end area.

By removing the fan, we can see that Thermaltake has made the heatpipe extend all the way through the fins; it doesn't just stop halfway. There are also a good number of fins and they are densely packed for maximum efficiency.

The fan shroud, although not too important, is made out of aluminum and is very appealing.

The fan itself is Thermaltake's standard orange 12cm fan.

A really nice touch is how Thermaltake decided to go the extra mile and sleeve the power connector. This makes it look better and minimizes the chance of it getting caught in the fan.

We're going to cap this section off by taking a quick look at the base of the cooler. While it was protected by only a cardboard cover, there was no damage to the center of the cooler and only a minor facial scratch to one corner. Regardless, the base is lapped flat.

A higher grit level would of immensely improved the shine.

While pictures say a thousand words on what the product is like, I won't be satisfied until I have this puppy up and running on my machine to obtain some numbers.

Page 5 : Installation

The Thermaltake Big Typhoon isn't like most other coolers, it's huge! We're starting off this review with my trusty Albatron K8SLI motherboard. We proceed by removing the stock cooler and gathering up the necessary parts. With a K8 installation, it requires the universal H plate and the two B screws.

You first need to remove the stock heatsink retention frame. Although it isn't listed anywhere, I read that many hardware users stated they had some difficulty installing the Big Typhoon. No one really offered a suitable solution to the problem, they often suggested going to another retention system from a different cooler. First and foremost, I don't think that's the solution at all! Why would you want to spend 50 dollars on a nice cooler and then have to spend another 50 dollars on a different cooler so you can mount it?! We did run into a similar problem with the mounting system (see picture below), but by actually taking the time to communicate with Thermaltake's support team, we were able to come up with a solution.

The problem some users run into, whether it be a Albatron motherboard or an MSI as seen in another review which I won't mention, is that the B class retention screws may be too short to reach the motherboard backplate.

A minor mishap for Thermaltake when they were selecting the screws to use with Socket 939 motherboards. They are about 2mm too short. After reporting the issue to Thermaltake, we were provided with a special backplate specifically designed for Socket 940 motherboards.

This backplate, when installed, gives you a couple extra millimeters of head for the screw to lock into.

I placed the cooler on top of the socket, without the CPU, to check if the H plate and B screws were now at the proper location. Everything looked good and we can now proceed with the complete installation.

Dropping the CPU in and giving it a thin coating of thermal paste, we're now ready to finish the installation. Place the Big Typhoon on top of the CPU, align the H plate and tighten down the two screws. I used a standard Philips screw driver tilted in at an angle to get the screws. A couple of turns, one for good luck and we're ready to boot.

Flip to the next page where we'll see how well the Big Typhoon performs.

Page 6 : Performance

We'll start everything off with our basic system specifications:

The room temperature during testing was approximately 27 degrees Celcius!

To stress the system, we placed it into full load for three hours using Distributed.net RC5-72 and Folding@Home. After the three hour duration, the temperatures were recorded from Albatron's Dr.Speed and both clients were shut down. After the system idled for three more hours, the idle temperatures were recorded and tabulated in the graph below.

While the temperatures were on par with the other high end coolers, I noticed one particular thing about this cooler: after several hours of torture, nothing got exceptionally warmer than room temperature! This is very different compared to the other coolers we have looked at.

Acousticaly, the Big Typhoon is quiet, but not dead silent. It has a low rumble to it. Of all the coolers I've looked at, the Big Typhoon is certainly the quietest. It generates just a tiny bit more noise than any of the other fans in my system; I'm using components from HIS and Antec whom are notorious for quiet components.

Page 7 : Conclusion

Despite the initial hiccups that occurred during installation, they were easily solved at a small additional cost. If you're lucky enough not to need the extra backplate, you've made an excellent investment for a powerful cooler that's very quiet. I wouldn't say it's the quietest cooler on the market, but its up there.

Advantages

Quiet
Excellent performance
Six heatpipes cooled with a 120mm fan

Disadvantages

May require new backplate

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