Date: February 27th, 2006
Article by: Joe Anderson (Hardware Reviewer)
Edited by: Nathan Glentworth (Owner / Head Editor)
Product was submitted by: Thermaltake
<--SHOP FOR A CPU COOLER HERE
PRODUCT COMPOSITION
For a relatively modest $25, this is what you'll get.
The clear, plastic container is of the easily opened clam-shell design. I can't tell you how much I hate those welded plastic packages.
Inside, you'll find the cooler, a small, but complete, installation sheet and a small package of white thermal interface material. For this review, I'll be using Arctic Silver 5 TIM to keep a level playing field, but the included TIM should work just fine.
PRODUCT PICTORIAL AND WALKTHROUGH
Let's take a closer look at the X K8.
The most prominent feature of this cooler is undoubtedly the fan. The large size and aggressive pitch of the fan blades are responsible for the large volume of air the RX K8 is able to move at a relatively moderate speed of 2200 RPM. The open design of this fan keeps the volume down to a whisper, as we'll see shortly.
With the fan removed, we can get a look at the underside. The label doesn't give much useful information.
The heatsink is copper, with a total of 46 fins, and is wrapped in an aluminum housing that will accommodate any standard 80mm or 92mm fan.
Using my associate, Mr. Bones (and a AA battery) for scale, you can get some idea of how compact this cooler is. With coolers growing to gargantuan proportions these days, it's rather refreshing to see a modest-sized contender enter the market. Let's hope that this doesn't equate to modest cooling performance.
