Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme : The New King

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The modern air cooling scene is today dominated by tower design heatsinks, and with massive Tuniq tower 120 and Thermalright Ultra 120 I personally thought how can this get any better with both these coolers giving excellent results.

Then comes the new avatar of Ultra 120, its big brother Ultra 120 Extreme. And the only difference between these two coolers is extra 2 heatpipes on the Extreme version making it a 6 heatpipe cooler.

[BREAK=Features and Specifications]

Features
# Quiet and powerful cooling due to multiple heat pipes and large aluminum fin area
# Proprietary bent winglet design to minimize airflow resistance
# Heat pipes soldered to base (nickel plated)and fins for optimum heat transfer
# Include both bolt-thru-board retention brackets for Intel and AMD

Technical Specifications

Dimension:L63.44 x W132 x H160.5 mm (heatsink only)

Weight:790g (heatsink only)

Recommended Fan

All 120mm Fan

Compatibility

INTEL: All Intel LGA775 processors
AMD: All AMD Socket AM2 Processors

Lets take a look at this cooler.

[BREAK=The Package and the heatsink itself]

On the first look its typical Thermalright brown box with just Extreme written on it. Nothing special.

The cooler is neatly packed in a foam mold. All the mounting kits and thermal paste are stored on the side in separate white cardpaper box. This packaging is simple but very effective. The Heatsink survived the half globe shipment without even a single scratch on it.

Here is the cooler itself.


Here are the mounting kits. The cooler is AM2 and LGA775 compatible. S939 support is dropped by Thermalright
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[BREAK=Installation]

Installing this cooler requires you to remove the motherboard. For AM2 mounting you use the motherboard backplate + mounting bracket provided.
For LGA775 the motherboard backplate and X type mounting kit is provided.
Mounting instructions are available on Thermalright website and they are very detailed and accurate.
I strongly suggest anyone buying this heatsink to go through them.
They are located here : Thermalright

Mounting was relatively easy. I suggest you do not peal off the sticker that covers adhesive tape on the base of LGA 775 backplate. This causes the backplate to stick to the back of the board so tightly that it becomes very difficult to remove it in the future when needed.

Here is the Ultra 120 Extreme mounted on my P5N32 E SLI motherboard.
Be careful while placing the motherboard inside the case again as this is one very heavy heatsink. And sudden movement and drop will surely cause damage to the motherboard heatsink itself.


[BREAK=Cooling performance.]

I tested the cooler under various conditions.
Lets have a look at them one by one.
For all the tests i set my Air conditioning to 28°C and increased vcore by 1 step than required vcore just to throw something more at the cooler and at the same time maintaining uniform conditions.
CPU used is Core 2 Duo E6600 @ 3.37Ghz , 1.46v.
Fan used was Thermaltake Blue LED 120mm at medium speed.
1. Orthos small fft

Idle Temperature : 36°C
Load Temperature : 46°C
Delta = Load - Idle Temperature = 10°C

Screenshot of Idle Temperatures


Screenshot of Full Load Temperatures


2. World Community Grid Boinc client
Idle Temperature : 36°C
Load Temperature : 44°C
Delta = Load - Idle Temperature = 8°C

3. 3Dmark 2006

CPU test were run in loop
Idle Temperature : 36°C
Load Temperature : 44°C
Delta = Load - Idle Temperature = 8°C

4. Counter strike source

Made a local server with plenty of bots
Idle Temperature : 36°C
Load Temperature : 45°C
Delta = Load - Idle Temperature = 9°C

[BREAK=Conclusion]

With stock heatsink, the load temperatures while crunching WCG data were touching as high as 62-64°C and Orthos going all the way upto 65°C. And all that at just 3.24Ghz.
With this HSF CPU never even touched 50°C. This tells all you need to know about this heatsink.
I ran every single test 3 times and results were replicated very accurately. And as you can see the performance given by this cooler is nothing short of shocking as well as exceptionally good.
I was expecting good results, but to get soo much better result was totally unexpected.
I have had some very good cooler in the past, and this heatsink blew every single one into mediocre catagory. This is how good this heatsink really is.
There is no doubt that this is one of the best heatsink money can buy today.

The Good
  • Unmatched performance
  • Not too expensive compared to other tower coolers.
  • Relatively easy to install.
  • Overall Design is very flexible with multiple fan and orientation possibilities.

The Bad
  • Very heavy and not easy to transport the case installed with this cooler.
  • No S939 support.
Cost of the Heatsink : $65
Cost Inclusive of shipping : $95
Bought from : Sidewinder Computers - A huge selection of High Quality PC Modding and Cooling parts
Product Link : Ultimate CPU Cooling Solutions! USA

My rating
Performance : 10/10
Value: 9/10
Ease of installation : 8/10
Overall: 9/10
 
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vandal said:
Good review funky. But u mentioned not removing the tape covering the adhesive pad... Is there any chance that the adhesive pad may conduct heat through the bolts or something to the back of the board (I mean the retention bracket) and by not removing the insulated (thermally) tape it won't conduct heat to the rear or something?

I also have a TR ultra 120 but haven't really looked at the thing properly or studied it in detail as you've obviously done.
Click to expand...
Nah re.

In fact, if it conducted heat it was good- back of cpu socket gets damn hot too- same reason we have that thingie with IFX-14.

Funky said that coz once stuck, you cant take it off w/o ripping/damaging the insulating stuff that's also the sticky tape- maybe some small smds too.:no:

So if u need to RMA mobo or replace it or use Ultra 120 in another rig, u lose that tape/insualtor.
And without it, the backplate will short the mobo.

So better use w/o sticking it.:)

Some have had that issue with the TtBT .
removed the peel off from the foam, not knowing what to do when they couldn't take it off the mobo in one piece when they had to change platforms or sell the mobo or the BT.:(
 
stormblast said:
ive also used it on my e4300 @ stock. worked great without any probs at all. installed xp & some softwares. load temps were around 55deg.
Click to expand...
I meant with the fan turned off ;)
 
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