Scythe Mine and Pentagram NXC-100Cu coolers
Tt Mini Typhoon
In its time, ThermalTake presented a very efficient cooler - Typhoon - which we liked for its high cooling level at a very low noise level. Let me briefly remind you that in the structure of Typhoon there were used heat pipes, a massive (but light, at the same time) aluminum radiator, and a very quiet 120 mm fan.
Quite recently, ThermalTake has presented a compact version of the cooler named Mini Typhoon. Frankly, Mini Typhoon and Typhoon have only a similar name: in fact, Mini Typhoon is an entirely different cooler.
See for yourselves: the radiator is of smaller dimensions and made of copper fins.
On the radiator, there is an open fan with very high impellers.
Inside the plastic box with the cooler,
there are the following items: a brief setup guide, a fastening frame for LGA775 motherboards, and a fastening clip for AMD boards. Among the compatible AMD boards, there were also AM2 socket boards (as the official web site of the company suggests).
The cooler design in general resembles the design of the Typhoon cooler. This is especially seen from the following:
We note a very decent processing quality of the cooler base:
However, it is too far for from the mirror surface of Scythe Mine.
Now a few words on the specifications. First, the cooler mass is 623 g, its overall dimensions are 112 mm x 94 mm x 125 mm (length/width/height). The fan is 92 mm in diameter (height - 38 mm), it rotates at 2200RPM, generates 38.7CFM air flow, and does not make noise higher than 18 dBa..
In other words, the developers promise a noiseless operation of the cooler and guarantee effective cooling of processors at the typical heat emission 130 W. However, practical experiments showed that the cooler does make a substantial noise and its operation can't be regarded as noiseless as that in Scythe Mine. In fact, the noise level does not prevent comfortable operation.
The cooler is very easy to install on an AMD motherboard. But while installing it on a LGA775 board we had to take pains since the fastening plate was inconvenient to to install. The cooler itself is placed at 45 degrees relative to the traditional installation of the processor:
 correct installation of the coolerIn our case, it was possible to install the cooler in only one position. At a different orientation, the cooler rests with its heat pipes against the radiator on the north bridge, warps and presses the capacitor down (the motherboard - ASUS P5WD2-Premium (i955X) ; in fact, this ASUS board proved strong enough, so it went on operating.). But in general the overall dimensions of the cooler are not of any issues (e.g., does not prevent from installation of memory installation).
On the whole, we liked the cooler. However, the "price/efficiency" matter remains unknown yet, and the noise level of the cooler won't appeal to the fanciers of noiseless systems.
Pros:
- Good cooling level;
- Compatibility to all the popular platforms.
Cons:
- Some issues upon installation of a LGA775 motherboard;
- The noise characteristics do not match the declared.
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