Even an engine isn’t quite as interesting as Coolermaster's latest!
We calmly opened the box, and then - WHOA! That thing is huuuge (gallery here)! And with reason - with a weight of 1.2kg, dual 120mm fans and ten heatpipes, plus a Thermo-Electric Cooler that can handle 50W of heat, the entire assembly is rated up to 200W of heat!
The base of this behemoth is nickel-plated copper, with six heatpipes running through it. Six go to the aluminium fins over at the en-suite, and four of the six also go to the small TEC plate on the side. These four are on the cool side of the TEC, and bring the cool back to the CPU core. On the hot side of the TEC are the remaining four heatpipes, which take that heat and run it upwards to the vertical/main heatsink.
Each area has its own fan, with the en-suite getting a downwards-facing red LED fan that will blow onto the memory, and the vertical getting a rearwards-facing replica that exhausts out of the case. The TEC itself sits on the top of the base, and is powered by a Molex cable. It actually gets quite cool on the cold side too, enough that we can definitely tell it's working without being so cold that condensation might become a problem.
When working though, it's pretty decent. The heatsink isn't astounding, just solid, but does makes an annoying 67.1dBA of noise (measured next to the logo). It can stand a little i7 overclocking though, and it's visually impressive - just be careful how you treat your rig with this installed!
Issue: 133 | February, 2012