Introduction

The Taiwanese cult company Thermaltake celebrates the tenth anniversary this year. Ten years Thermaltake, this means very much colorful, funny, loud, unusual but for the part very ideas and successful in the areas of PC cooling, chassis and peripherals. Specifically to the former hobbyhorse of the company, to design successful air cooling solutions, it has become recently somewhat quiet and the focus moved increasingly to the power supply, Wasserkühlungs-and housing sectors. Only rarely inspire bold creations like the V14 Pro CPU cooler in the air cooling segment.

In the present review, we will devote ourselves the Thermaltake of fanless 330, an interesting graphic cards cooling system, is designed first to fanless operation and is so wonderfully suitable for very quiet PC implementations. December fan, also even the references may bring into the Luftkühl field in the.

Scope of delivery

The Thermaltake of fanless 330 includes the mounting materials for the supported video cards band, thirteen RAM memory cooler for the careful joining on the RAM modules, a guarantee certificate as well as Assembly instructions including aufheiternder, a German translation in addition to the heat sink. Fan does not require the creation, for a paper based silicone thermal compound completes the look.

Facts & figures

• Thermaltake of fanless VGA cooler 330
• Passive cooler with three radiators
• 106 Aluminum slats, copper base
• Quad heatpipe design (ø 6 mm)
• Dimensions: 180 x 123.2 x 68.6 mm
• Weight: 260 G
• Compliance < div > more information < div >
  • NVIDIA GeForce: 5700, 5800, 5900, 5950, 6600, 6800 GT/GS, 7600 GT/GS, 7800 GTX/GT/GS, 7900 GTX/GT/GS, 8500 GT, 8600 GT, 8800 GT, 9600 GT and compatible series
  • AMD/ATI: Radeon X 800 / 850, X 1600, X 1800 GT/XTX/XT, X 1900 GT/XTX/XT, HD 2400, HD 2600, HD 3850 and compatible series
• Manufacturer’s website
• Distributors and current pricing

Short description

The passive cooling of found has moved in recent years in the shadows. This is in particular the proliferation of the loss of heat of current graphics cards, especially in the high output range, which is hardly in the conventional way and already not fanless to curb. In addition, that it manufacturers of appropriate cooling solutions due to frequently changing board layouts, fluctuating hole spacing for mounting, and new generations of VGA not simply have to construct compatible manufacturer spanning cooler for a wide range of current and future possible even video cards. Here the return on relatively uniform concepts would be highly desirable from the perspective of lower development effort on the part of the manufacturer, but also from the perspective of the end customer experience. Since this is however not given, the Thermaltake of fanless 330 with a slightly old-fashioned sounding compatibility list awaits you. More recent accelerators can be used also as long as the distance between holes there to be mounted. So has the cooler devices with the diagonal distances 76 mm, 68.5 mm, 61.5 mm, 54.5 mm (each with four holes to square corner positions) as well as 55 mm (two holes on rectangular base).

The Thermaltake of fanless 330 ago by building a very interesting cooler. On the basis of a reflective copper base plate, four 6 mm heatpipes spread the heat on the passive radiators. This one is 180 x 78 x 17 mm slat part of a total of 30 units of aluminium, clean added together in a 2-mm distance front first on a conventional. The existing recess on the top, which carries the Thermaltake company logo, is precisely matched to the deposit of a 92-mm fan. However, there are no mounting mechanisms as standard.

The back page extra heatsink is undoubtedly peculiarity of fanless 330, which due to their forms of wing associations. You increase the effective passive cooling area on the one hand, but especially graphics card rückseitig in the area of the processor cooler and thus in the space usually well ventilated by them respectively by appropriate case fans are installed. Due to the radial position of the slats they are also good in any convection and so silently benefit from existing sources of ventilation.

Both visually and qualitatively the Thermaltake of fanless 330 leaves a very good figure. Due to the colour of the unit, it is harmoniously, the shift from round and square shapes, however, brings momentum and piques the interest. The material vote succeeded very finely, the items were connected posh to a robust, stylish work.

The Assembly of the Thermaltake chicory is designed in the context of the above mentioned Kompatiblitätsfenster easily. Once removed the original cooler and free GPU and memory modules of any residues, the passive, equipped with self adhesive pads RAM blocks are first to install. This is to ensure that three of the 13 elements are somewhat flat and thus must be installed in the area of the Board-orbiting heatpipes. Subsequently, the clip at the bottom of fanless 330 are assembled and equipped with the spacer according to the specific hole spacing. This helps the TT mounting instructions which tabular form shows the appropriate holes for each supported graphics cards. This is accomplished, can the cooler on the GPU wetted with thermal paste put on and fixed using the insulating rings and the hexagon nuts at the back hand-tight. Tool is not necessary for this purpose.

There was a moment of Grasshopper installation of Thermaltake cars on a GeForce 8600 GT. As the Board of the middle-class GPU comparatively short turns out, the front part of the lamina completes almost flush with the bracket of the card. The wing Subpeak on the back stand out even a few millimeters in, so that we at first could not assume that the so-equipped video card will easily find place in the housing. The attempt to read our fears however disappear – but the 8600 GT could be positioned in a test case – Thermaltake has done here really made-to-measure, which repeats itself may not in any case currently on the market. When using very short video cards compatibility before buying should be checked so be sure.

Test system and procedures

• Intel Pentium XE 840, 3.2 GHz
• Zalman CNPS 9700 Cu (@ 5 volts)
• Intel D955XBK motherboard
• 2 x 512 MB Corsair CM2X512A 5400UL CL3
• ASUS Radeon X 1900 XTX
• MSI NX GeForce 8600 GT
• Maxtor 6Y080M0, 7200 RPM (decoupled by Zalman ZM-2HC2)
• Silverstone Strider ST06F 600 Watts (with Pope F2GLL @ 1100 RPM)
• Thermaltake shark (fully insulated Pope F2GLL, @ 1100 RPM case fan)
• Thermal paste: Arctic Cooling MX-2
• Room temperature 21 ° C

We test the Thermaltake of fanless 330 8600 GT MSI first in the passive mode with a GeForce. The mainstream card has a moderate power and can be adequately cool in the above setup for accordingly suitable VGA-cooler. In addition, the Thermaltake addition in ventilated operation on an ATI/AMD Radeon X is tested 1900 XTX is performance no longer up to date, but to the hottest consulted in the context of supported graphics cards. Equipped without Heatspreader, the hot-tempered graphics chip only has a small contact area to the radiators, and thus makes highest demands on the cooling hardware. The test procedure provides Meanwhile a 30-minute 3D-Mark-06-Loop, through which the system and in particular the graphics card is claimed and warmed up. During this period, all important sensor parameters (temperatures, speeds, etc.) with the tool Everest are documented. We consider the maximum values from these measurements to compare the products.

Temperature considerations

In passive mode

Our first consideration deals with the passive mode. This is only for very low-loss power 3D-Chips and existing housing ventilation recommended. In any case, the temperatures of the accelerator when using a fanless cooler under load in mind are to keep. For comparison, we draw to a passive cooler with the phpMyFAQ 3801 rate, which represents the elaborate design of earlier cooler, designed for this purpose. Here, you had to work with very much thermal paste and laboriously connecting the items including the heatpipes.

Thus, the Thermaltake of fanless 330 shows that he is significantly better than these methods. In our test system, benefits significantly more of the existing airflow the Taiwanese in the fanless operation and holds the GeForce 8600 GT very sovereign on course.

Series ventilation < 120 mm

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Many retrofit cooler for the video card are with fans in the 92-or 100-mm format. To know the TT fanless 330 appropriately placed, we have made with a 92-mm Pope N2GL, against the previous competition on the Radeon X 1900 play him XTX. Here, the single ventilated configuration reflected quite considerably against the mostly double ventilated adversaries.

Reference ventilation 120 mm

Many users on minimal system volume roofed put now even at VGA ventilation on the 120-mm format, finally are already favourable to have very good fan of this design and promote accordingly large amounts of air at low speeds. In our comparison based on the Radeon X the Thermaltake of fanless 330 with Noctua ventilation attacked for the first time the 1900 XTX to date undisputed leaders of Arctic Cooling Accelero s1. Only at derated speed converters temperatures of the Taiwanese truncates worse something as the Swiss success cooler.

Conclusion and recommendations

The fanless 330 managed a very good cooler based on passive Thermaltake. With an interesting design in the race, especially the performance convincing in addition to the qualitative as well as material quality in the active as passively ventilated operation. Especially quiet PC implementations with little loss leistungsschwächeren found can be cooled with the Scion of the Thermaltake silent. With corresponding switching ventilation in the 92-or even reference rich results are 120 mm format erzielbar.

It is a pity that the Taiwanese in the supported video cards have more fixed on the older guard. Thus, the extravagant VGA aftermarket cooler for many users is rather uninteresting. Nevertheless should the fanless 330 looking after a powerful VGA cooler, a comprehensive availability provided, taken into consideration. Price the addition with just under 40 euro moves the upscale appearance according to rather near the top.