Thermaltake Intros Engine 17 "All Metal" Low-profile CPU Cooler

[btarunr]

Back in 2011, a team of engineers with the Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico, proposed an audacious new chip air-cooling concept called simply the Sandia CPU cooler. Its design involved a chunky metallic fan not just ventilating the cooler, but also dissipating heat by itself, conveyed through a thin layer of conductive lubricant between the fan and the static heatsink below it. The concept itself never made it to commercial production, but Thermaltake brought something closely resembling it to the market in 2016, with the Engine 27. The company is giving this cooler an even smaller sibling, with the new Engine 17. The number in the model name refers to its Z-height of just 17 mm, making it comfortable for 1U builds.

Besides its reduced Z-height, the design is practically unchanged from the Engine 27 - a round, nickel-plated copper base-plate draws heat from the CPU, which is mated with a 60 mm diameter metallic fan that not just dissipates heat by itself, but also passes air through a ring of aluminium fin channels projecting radially. The reduced height means that this cooler can only handle thermal loads of up to 35W TDP. It only supports Intel LGA115x sockets. Despite its weight, the fan spins between 1,500 to 2,500 RPM, pushing about 9 CFM of air, with a noise output ranging between 11 to 23 dBA. Measuring 91.5 mm x 91.5 mm x 17 mm, it weighs 205 g. The company didn't reveal pricing.



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[cyneater]

so being Thermalmistake it will be "40 db" in the real world.....

 

[Firedrops]

Deja vu... feels like I've been seeing this announcement every year since I was a wee kid.

 

[Caring1]

Deja vu... feels like I've been seeing this announcement every year since I was a wee kid.

So two years ago?
This thing is sexy, but I prefer the original "27"

 

[RejZoR]

I think I was still reading paper computer magazines when i first heard about it...

 

[micropage7]

Spinning blades?

 

[Gasaraki]

I thought this this was shit when it came out... What they do to fix this now? It doesn't look any different to me.

 

[CheapMeat]

I thought this this was shit when it came out... What they do to fix this now? It doesn't look any different to me.

Did you read the info? It's just a lower height variant for 1U servers or tinier SFF cases. This is 17mm tall, the other is 27mm tall.

 

[chimonow]

Obviously they haven't been that successful in turning the original Engine 27 into a product worth buying since they sold the license to Rosewill. Since reviews of the Engine 27 show that temperatures are around the stock Intel heatsink but at a much quieter 36.5 decibels, I just don't see the point unless you're striving for passive cooling levels of quietness..

Though that may just be the un-forthcoming selling point.

 

[Gasaraki]

Did you read the info? It's just a lower height variant for 1U servers or tinier SFF cases. This is 17mm tall, the other is 27mm tall.

So even shittier. Nice. Plenty of other low profile coolers that perform better.

 

[diatribe]

Didn't Cooler Master have one of these in prototype a couple of years ago?

CoolChip at CES 2015

 

[Fx]

I kind of like this for a SFF appliance, but that low of height isn't needed and that TDP is pretty low.

Noctua provides NH-L9a-AM4 and NH-L9i which cools up to 95 and 65 TDP respectively, but requires up to 37mm for clearance which is practical and enough.

 

[CheapMeat]

So even shittier. Nice. Plenty of other low profile coolers that perform better.

Cool. You feel better now?

 

[lexluthermiester]

I wonder what the performance would be if it were a 50mm or 60mm tall and wider..

 

[InVasMani]

I like this design better aluminum frame blower by Dynatron.
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...4143&cm_re=5.25_cooler-_-35-114-143-_-Product

What would be great is to flip the frame top upside down and mount direct contact heatpipes going to a top down tower cooler like AMD's Wraith perhaps. It would assist in cooling the base of the CPU and VRM's from the blower while the tower cooler does it's job and blows cool air down into the blower. I think together such a design would work well.

In this Thermaltake design they should have had half of the fins closed off so the fan is more of a blower style and directs the air where you want it another words in the directions of the VRM's to help cool those as well. It seems like a silly mistake to not take that into consideration of the design that would have really made it more effective.

 

[lexluthermiester]

I like this design better aluminum frame blower by Dynatron.
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...4143&cm_re=5.25_cooler-_-35-114-143-_-Product

But that's copper. Definitely going to be a noisy bugger..

 

[Caring1]

I wonder what the performance would be if it were a 50mm or 60mm tall and wider..

I think it would still fit if it was 120mm wide and the mount integrated through the base.

 

[lexluthermiester]

I think it would still fit if it was 120mm wide and the mount integrated through the base.

Oh, that's a good idea. Would likely work well.