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Installation
(For a K8 system)
Unless you’re one of the lucky few that already has a metal back plate on your motherboard, then installing the Orb will require you to remove your motherboard to install one.
Once attached two standoffs are screwed into the plate, followed by the Orb itself.
Aside from the backplate, the Orb is a remarkably easy cooler to install, attaching using only two screws, as opposed to the booby-trapped spring loaded clips usually used.
The shape of the cooler also gives it plenty of clearance around the CPU so it’s unlikely to have any issues.
Testing
The cooler will be tested on my system with the following specs:
- DFi LanParty nF3 250gb
- AMD Sempron 3100+
- 1GB Corsair 3200XLPro (2x512MB)
- XFX GeForce 6800GT 256MB
- Maxtor 300GB DiamondMax 10
- Hiper Type R Blue 580W
All of this was housed in my Antec PlusView 1000amg case, and as my processor is so woefully pathetic at producing real heat, I reduced my usual army of fans to a single intake fan blowing over my hard drives, and just the 6800GT and Hiper PSU exhausting air, although the Hiper PSU is using both a 120mm and 80mm fan.
For comparison purposes I’ll be pitting the Orb against the standard Sempron cooler that’s supplied with the processor, as well as my usual cooler, which is a Thermalright XP120 with a 120mm fan.
Unfortunately I couldn’t find a site that sold both the Orb and XP120, but on average the Orb goes for £20, and the XP120 for £35. The standard cooler comes free with the retail processor packages.
Every time I was going to test the coolers, I ran the computer under full load for an hour, even if I was only going to test the idle temperatures. The system was also restarted after every test.
All temperatures were measured using Motherboard Monitor 5, using settings from the www.dfi-street.com forums. MBM5 was also used to measure the average CPU load. To put load on the processor, a Prime 95 torture test was ran at the same time as a custom 4 thread PC Mark 05 looping test suite.
Idle temperatures were taken after the computer had been on for at least 30minutes, and the average CPU load was under 1.5%, and Load temperatures were taken after at least 30minutes, and when the average CPU load was above 98.5%
Each cooler had three idle, and three load tests performed, and an average result was calculated to give these results:
Summary:
While no cooler stood out as the be all and end all, you have to remember that the processor wasn’t pumping out that much heat. The Orb and XP120 both beat the standard cooler unsurprisingly, and while they didn’t beat it by much, they also helped keep the surrounding components cool. On the load tests the North Bridge was around 4-5 degrees cooler on the Orb and XP120 then on the standard cooler.
The Orb also kept up with the XP120 very well considering that the XP120 used 5 heatpipes, as well as fan that was 20mm larger and span at 2000rpm compared to the Orbs 100mm 1600rpm fan.
The Orb was also near silent in operation, being barely any louder then the standard cooler.
But unfortunately the Orb hasn’t quite won me over. The noise of my computer doesn’t bother me at all, no matter how much like a jet engine it sounds! One day I’ll get round to replacing the Sempron with a man’s processor, and the XP-120 will actually get a workout. Finally, there’s the weight. Over 700g is a massive amount for a cooler. While I feel very confident that Thermaltake tested it to death to ensure there are no problems, I’m still left with the nagging feeling that if it did tumble it would take my graphics card, sound card, and probably part of my desk with it!
Conclusion
The 3DVelocity 'Dual Conclusions Concept' Explained: After discussing this concept with users as well as companies and vendors we work with, 3DVelocity have decided that where necessary we shall aim to introduce our 'Dual Conclusions Concept' to sum up our thoughts and impressions on the hardware we review. As the needs of the more experienced users and enthusiasts have increased, it has become more difficult to factor in all the aspects that such a user would find important, while also being fair to products that may lack these high end "bonus" capabilities but which still represent a very good buy for the more traditional and more prevalent mainstream user. The two categories we've used are:
The Mainstream User ~ The mainstream user is likely to put price, stock performance, value for money, reliability and/or warranty terms ahead of the need for hardware that operates beyond its design specifications. The mainstream user may be a PC novice or may be an experienced user, however their needs are clearly very different to those of the enthusiast, in that they want to buy products that operate efficiently and reliably within their advertised parameters.
The Enthusiast ~ The enthusiast cares about all the things that the mainstream user cares about but is more likely to accept a weakness in one or more of these things in exchange for some measure of performance or functionality beyond its design brief. For example, a high priced motherboard may be tolerated in exchange for unusually high levels of overclocking ability or alternatively an unusually large heat sink with a very poor fixing mechanism may be considered acceptable if it offers significantly superior cooling in return.
The Mainstream User ~
The average user isn’t going to overly care about temperatures, or overclocking. And they almost certainly don’t want to remove the motherboard to connect a component. Luckily this isn’t really aimed at those users, but on the other hand it’s a good looking cooler, especially when running. On top of that the cooler is very cheap for its performance and I’d recommend this to any user willing to remove their motherboard.
The Enthusiast ~
There aren’t many PC enthusiasts I know that mind any excuse to take their PC apart. With that in mind, I can’t really find fault with the cooler apart from its weight. It’s very competitively priced, it performs very well, aside from the backplate it’s easy to install, and it wouldn’t look out of place in the middle of a standard enthusiasts glowing case.
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