The Norse God of Thunder’s latest weapon.
We fell in love with this heatsink at first sight. From the individually mirrored fins, to the intricate sandwiching design that reminds us oddly of a carpark, and lots of cool history behind the name, this is one heatsink that is oozing awesomeness.
It's a tower cooler with a flat top that is reflective enough to see yourself, and is unmarked by heatpipes poking through the top. Each layer of fins rests against the surrounding fins to provide a huge amount of stability - we'd actually have to try to bend the fins to get them to move.
The base is the most interesting part however, since it uses the Direct Touch method of sanding the four 8mm heatpipes to directly contact the Integrated Heat Spreader (IHS) of a CPU, and take the heat away more efficiently. It's very smooth and flat, but small gaps between the heatpipes are left. There are a further three 6mm heatpipes that are mounted just above the larger ones, and all seven pipes are bent into a U shape to give fourteen paths for heat to travel.
Compatibility isn't an issue either, and it includes support for LGA1366, LGA775, AM2, 939, and 754. Simply screw the right bracket on the heatsink, and mount it to the mobo. Fans are attached via rubber nipples, although none are included - the heatsink cannot handle the heat of our i965 even at idle without airflow.
It performed admirably at stock settings, but when we bashed in our overclock and higher voltage, then ran OCCT to load the CPU it couldn't handle the heat - and crashed at 84 degrees even with two fans. This isn't to say it isn't a good heatsink (Nehalem is incredibly hot), and it'd be perfectly fine for any C2D-based CPU. Just make sure you pick a good fan for it!
Issue: 133 | February, 2012