Wednesday, September 2nd 2009
Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme Gets Revised
Thermalright's iconic Ultra 120 Extreme (TRUE) CPU cooler has a new revision. TRUE Rev. B brings along a small design change that the company claims improves its cooling performance a little. Most of its 52 aluminum fins barring the top one have a 'V'-shaped cutting in the center. This perhaps increases turbulence (for better heat dissipation) a little. The resulting temperature drops are estimated around 1~2 °C. TRUE Rev. B has started selling in China for RMB 530 (which is around $79), including fan. Without the fan, $72.95 is all it takes.
Source:
Expreview
57 Comments on Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme Gets Revised
The base was so convex that when I put it on a table, it wobbled! I had to go back to Lowe's to get more sandpaper, since all the recommended amount I had was used up for lapping off so much copper! After more than 1 hour of grinding, it was finally flat.. oh man, my hands were so sore (with a few cuts on my fingers from the fins.. yeah, I shoulda wore gloves).
Roughly 7-10 degrees cooler now under idle, but it could also be because I added washers to the backplate to increase the pressure (which was lost due to lapping nearly 2mm of copper off). There was more pressure this time around anyways. That's on a Core i7 920 oc'ed to 4 GHz.
The IFX-14 is better than TRUE by at least 5 degrees on Core i7's, according to the recent reviews. It just performs better on those bigger chips than on Core2's. I am not sure why, but all the reviews using Corei7's clearly show how the IFX-14 is really that much better than the rest of all others, including Megahalems, Mugen2, Baram, Noctua, etc... My own IFX-14 barely becomes hot to touch, with two 2000rpm fans in push-push configuration. It's a mini room-heater though when I fold with all 8 threads.
Also, it doesn't help the coolers quality any, it still feels cheap. And the quality control standards are Xigmatek leave a lot to be desired. All 3 that I've ordered have had bent fins on arrival. I guess bent fins shouldn't really be an issue since you have to bend them to get the stupid rubber fan mounts in anyway...
ifx-14 still kills and the more volts you throw at it the more it streches its legs.
www.xbitlabs.com/articles/coolers/display/core-i7-coolers-roundup_19.html#sect0
Anyways, I would think that the TRUE is definitely a great cooler anyways.. I almost bought it after all, before taking the plunge for an IFX-14. My next one would be Xigmatek Thor's Hammer:
because it just looks so cool with all of the neat features (4 thick HDT heatpipes and 3 regular ones on top), Baram-like fins, etc.. if I decide to get this:
www.svc.com/acts-t.html