Dr. Thermal HSF Review

Author : Joseph Leone : 31st October 2001

3DVelocity would like to thank Thermal Integration Technology, Inc. and especially Jr. Chou, President, for their help and courtesy in providing this cooler for review.

Introduction :

Thermal Integration sent their Dr. Thermal TI-V77L. It's their good fortune (or misfortune) to be the first unit tested under 3DVelocity's new Heatsink/Fan test program. Under this new program, all the HSF units we obtain, however we obtain them, will be tested using our "test bench". If you'd like to see more about the test unit itself, and the reasoning behind our decision to embark on this course, you can read the entire article here. The bottom line is to obtain results that can be compared across the whole spectrum of available HSF units.

What you get :

Here's the package that Dr. Thermal arrived in. It's strong..and certainly bright. Dr. Thermal won't have any difficulty being seen on crowded shelves.

 

 

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First Impression:

Inside the box is Dr Thermal himself...along with a few pieces of form fitting foam and a tube of generic silicone thermal transfer compound. The packaging will protect the good Dr from the usual bumps and grinds encountered in shipping. One item of note is the fact that this unit is fitted with a 70mm fan, not the usual 60mm we are all so used to seeing. This may make upgrading to a higher CFM fan or an 80mm unit somewhat difficult. The fan itself is a 3 wire, rpm sensing unit that runs quietly. It is a YS Fan ball bearing unit that turns at 5000 RPM and delivers 38 CFM. T.I.T.I.'s specs indicate an actual noise level of 41 dBA, and I'm going to take their word for it. In the photo below, you can just about see the actuating lever for the novel clip design, more of which we'll show you later.

 

 

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Construction:

As you can see below, this unit is composed of an aluminum superstructure with a copper "slug" press fitted into it. Copper has a better rate of heat transfer than aluminum does, so it's ideal for use as a contact surface against the relatively small CPU die. The copper slug has a much larger surface contact area with the aluminum, so thermal transfer can take place at a fairly high rate while still keeping weight down. The weight, by the way is 288.5 grams...or about 10.2 ounces for you guys on this side of the Atlantic...well below AMD and Intel published maximums. My only caution here would be that the sharp fins could potentially cause damage to the rubber spacers that AMD uses on their CPUs. The overall finish is clean and neat, with no burrs or nicks in any of the surfaces. The fins are spaced widely enough that airflow should be fairly good, and the slightly curved shape should provide good turbulence..and turbulence is what keeps the air "scrubbing" the metal. That means less build-up of hot "boundary layer" air to insulate and impede heat transfer.

 

 

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Better Mousetrap:

Here we see the business end of the clip system that really impressed me. The only way this thing could be better would be the use of a jaw that grabbed all 3 hooks on each side of the socket. We all know, of course, that some of the HSF units out there are tough to mount..and more than a few motherboards have been put out to pasture due to broken socket hooks. If this clip design used all 3 hooks to do the job, I'd give it a "10". Anyway, it just couldn't be simpler. You just engage the clip on the hooks...it fits just snugly..and then operate the locking handle just like a ZIF socket handle. The clips tighten up nicely, there's no chance of damaging anything with a slip-of-the-screwdriver, and it's even easier to remove. This is the only HSF unit I have ever used that I was able to mount and dismount with ONE hand and no tools.

 

 

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Results and Opinions:

As I previously stated, this is the first HSF review in what we hope will be a long series of reviews. Because it's the first, we don't have a very large database of results for you to compare. We do have something for you, however, because this review is worthless unless there is some baseline to compare with. I tested two other units with Dr. Thermal. One was a generic cooler that actually came with my retail packaged AMD CPU. It's a simple aluminum casting with a 60 x 60 x 12 fan. The other is an OCZ Copper Gladiator that I purchased about a year ago. It's been reviewed to death elsewhere, so all I'm giving you now is raw test data. As we continue on this program, we will be reviewing all newly released units, and testing all of our previously reviewed units. Our database will continually grow, and hopefully we can help you make the right choice.

All the units are tested the same way. 1500 grams of water at 80C are circulated through our testing apparatus, with the time and temperature drop monitored. We take the 10 minute period with the greatest temperature drop, and simply calculate the calories and BTUs of heat transfer.

 

 

My Conclusion:

Dr Thermal is an excellent performer when compared to OCZ's Gladiator and the little OEM generic. The clip design is so simple that I'm amazed I haven't seen it before now. It's a snap to operate. My only complaint is the 70mm fan. The odd size will make upgrades difficult, although performance seems to be adequate right now. I think if the alignment problem is solved, performance should improve even more.