3DVelocity would like to thank Thermaltake , and in particular Kenny Lin, for their invaluable help and generosity in supplying this case for review.

 

Hear the name Thermaltake, and you immediately cunjure up images of their innovative Orb design coolers, but as you can see from the image above, that's not the only type of cooler this constantly evolving company can pump out. The Volcano 2 is a much more traditionally designed HSF that appears to have been introduced to carve out a place in the budget sector, and at a mere $20 or so, this looks likely to happen.

The first thing that becomes apparent when you fit this HSF is just how (relatively) quiet it is. Although the fan can shift a very respectable 36CFM of air, it does so with a lower RPM and greater fan blade pitch, meaning motor noise is reduced considerably. The fan is a dual Ball bearing design, and has a MTBF of 80,000 hours, or if you calculate that working on 12 hours use per day, it pans out at a rather gobsmacking 18 years plus!
Before we move on, let's take a look at the technical specs.

 

P/N	DU0462-7
Application	AMD SOCKET462/A upto 1.5GHz
Overall Dimensions	60x60x69mm tall
Fan Size	60x60x25mm 3-Wire
FAN RATED VOLTAGE (V)	12 volt
Noise Level(dBA)	31.5 dBA
Air Volume (CFM)	36 CFM
Rated Speed(RPM)	4500 RPM
Rated Current	2.64W
Started Voltage	7volt
Bearing System	2xBALL BEARING
Interface Material	THERMAGON T-905c
Lifetime	80,000 hours
Air Pressure	5.3mm-H2O
Thermal Resistance	Theta ja=0.64c/w

..

After Tt shunned the use of a pre-applied gum in favour of a sachet of grease on their Super Orb, it came as a bit of a surprise to see they'd returned to it for the Volcano. I can only assume this is done to help keep the costs down, and to be fair, it performs pretty well in comparison to some, though if you've got some grease, or better yet some Arctic Silver kicking around, I suggest you scrape away the pre-applied gum and use it. Be careful when scraping the gum away that you don't gouge into the base as this will have an effect on performance.

The base is flat and pretty smooth, though the fussier overclocker will probably want to lap it.

The clip is one of those designs that works well provided you're careful. The only effective way to fasten this clip is by using a flat bladed screwdriver and inserting it behind the small protruding finger, however, having a screwdriver slip out of the clip while you're applying pressure is a sure-fire way to kill your motherboard. For this reason, I suggest you use as broad a blade on your screwdriver as will comfortably fit, and place something like a credit card below the clip to help protect the board should the tip slip out. I'd really like to see this type of clip have little wings folded out at either side to stop the blade tip sliding sideways, and thus off.

If you're wondering what that screw's right above the clip is all about, so was I, so I removed it and noticed a rather nifty feature, which at the moment I'm at a total loss to explain the purpose of.

Once the screw has been removed, the whole fan assembly can be slid off the top of the main heatsink. The problem is that there's no need to do this in order to change the fan, so its exact purpose remains a mystery to me. It may be to enable you to dismantle the unit for cleaning without having to drive out all 4 fan screws, or it may be that Tt will be offering various fan configurations which will be supplied pre-fitted to the retaining plate, making for a singe screw swap, but in all honesty I'm just guessing.

With the fan out of the way, it's much easier to see the fin design. Look familiar at all?

Once the fan was off, I noticed that Tt had opted to not manufacture their own motor for this unit, but had instead turned to Everflow. I read somewhere that Everflow was in fact a Thermaltake brand name, but I can't get this confirmed, and I'm sure I've seen fans with Everflow stamps on them long before Thermaltake came onto the scene.

PERFORMANCE:

Despite its low cost, the whole unit feels weighty and well built, and when combined with that 36CFM fan I was expecting reasonablly good results. Let's take a look how it coped. Ambient room temperatures were as close to 21 Celsius as I could get for all test results here.

COOLER	IDLE	STRESSED
Stock HSF (generic)	44 Celsius	46 Celsius
Thermaltake Super Orb	38 Celsius	42 Celsius
Coolermaster Heat Pipe	42 Celsius	45 Celsius
Hedgehog 238m with graphite	36 Celsius	39 Celsius
Hedgehog 238m silicone grease	35 Celsius	39 Celsius
Hedgehog 238m with Arctic Silver	32 Celsius	35 Celsius
Tt Volcano2 with pre-applied TIM	35 Celsius	42 Celsius
Tt Volcano2 with Arctic Silver	33 Celsius	39 Celsius

I think these results are far beyond what I'd expected to find. The idle temperature was only a degree above that of the far more expensive Hedgehog, and even under full load ( an hour of Prime 95 ) it came in well ahead of the Super Orb, and only four degrees higher than the all conquering Hedgehog. I used the MSI K7T Pro's inbuilt sensor rather than a separate probe, so while the readings may not be degree accurate, any errors will at least be across the board.

CONCLUSION:

The Volcano 2 may not offer the kind of performance that we find amongst the very elite of the HSF world, but it is a quality offering in every sense of the word. Lighter than, and about half the price of a Hedgehog, and a fair ammount cheaper and quiter than a FOP-38, this is set to become a strong contender in the performance/price race. It may look a little on the uninspiring side, but the fact is it cools with the best of them.
The fact that the Volcano offers such efficient cooling at such a low price, and with noise levels that are very easy to live with, certainly makes it a very attractive proposition, as does its small footprint which should mean it is easily fitted onto just about any motherboard out there. If you want top notch cooling at an affordable price, this may just be the way to go.

 

A right to reply

This is a new feature we are introducing into all our future reviews. It's easy for us to sit and pick holes in a product, assuming we know why certain things were done the way they were, but it's only fair that the manufacturer gets the chance to defend themselves. In this section, you will see the manufacturer's replies to the points we raise, and decide for yourself if they're valid or not.

3DVelocity: The sliding fan plate is a niftyidea, but does it serve any real purpose?

Thermaltake: Awaiting Reply

3DVelocity: You've chosen not to go with one of your own fans this time, is there a specific reason for that?

Thermaltake: Awaiting Reply

3DVelocity: For this model, you seem to have abandoned supplying a seperate packet of grease in favour of a pre-applied TIM, was this primarily a cost saving move?

Thermaltake: Awaiting Reply