Introduction

From the Thermaltake website:

Our Mission – Delivering the perfect user experience
Every myth starts out as a dream, and at the beginning of every legend is a desire. The challenging, creative and competitive features of the Thermaltake Group offer an exciting and fascinating user experience that can be shared by everyone, while allowing users to transcend themselves in terms of function and potential.

Thermaltake Group's three main brands—Thermaltake, Tt eSPORTS and LUXA2—have been merchandising high-quality products throughout the world, successfully establishing firm footholds in six major markets, including Europe, America, Oceania, Japan and China, with 95 regional distributors and more than 4,000 premium retailers.

Thermaltake was founded in 1999 and has become a major player in the PC market. Responsible for three main brands, Thermaltake, Tt eSPORTS and LUXA2, the company has gone from manufacturing CPU coolers to producing just about everything an enthusiast would want or need today. The company pushed through conventional boundaries when it teamed with BMW Group subsidiary DesignworksUSA for the Level 10 extreme gaming chassis. Offering such a wide range of innovative products through its well-known brands, Thermaltake has evolved into a company every PC enthusiast is aware of today.

Thermaltake has achieved an unprecedented level of success thanks to some truly amazing products. Their first turbine cooler, the "Golden Orb", was launched in 2000, and what about the Tide Water GPU cooler people modded for CPU cooling; it was also the first self-contained liquid-cooling unit well before the AIO craze even started. Their Big Typhoon hit it big when it came to heavyweight air cooling. After breaking onto the peripherals scene, the company released the level 10 M mouse in 2012 and the Level 10 M gaming headset in 2013. With the Toughpower series, Thermaltake has had a rock-solid line of power supplies as well. As history shows, Thermaltake is not afraid to roll up its sleeves to try something new. In fact, doing so has often led to some seriously outstanding products.

In today's review, I will be looking at the Thermaltake NiC C5. NiC stands for "Non-interference cooling", an apt name for the series as its coolers offer up maximum memory compatibility with even two fans. Who doesn't like coolers with insane memory compatibility for the likes of Corsair's Dominators Platinums to fit without issue? I know I am a fan, but let us dig a bit deeper to figure out just what the NiC C5 offers and how it performs before I let myself get blown away.

Packaging and Contents

The box Thermaltake uses to protect and showcase the NiC C5 is smaller than I had anticipated. It measures in at roughly 18.4 cm in length, 12.4 cm in width, and 20.3 cm in height. The box may seem small, but does provide adequate protection. The front is covered in an image of the cooler aand mentions the 230W TDP it supports. The facts that it features two fans and five Ø6 mm heatpipes are also mentioned. The left side lists all the cooler's specifications. More features are covered on the back, like its single VR knob to adjust fan speed and the fact that the NiC collection uses a non-interference cooling design so as not to block the motherboard's DIMM slots. Overall, lots of flashy images, features, and specifications.


The right side lists a few features in various languages. The top of the box just holds the NiC C5 logo and nothing more.

Contents

Opening the box reveals the installation manuals, and below those is the small box with the necessary mounting hardware. Meanwhile, the cooler is surrounded in soft foam for some additional protection. Great use of space with little to none going to waste, the solid packaging provides adequate protection, which is always nice to see.


Thermaltake's universal mounting hardware and accessories package supports all modern sockets. As the cooler already includes two fans, users won't have to purchase an additional one for a boost in performance. Add to that the small accessories package and you have a cooler that has everything you need and nothing you don't, and its installations looks simple.

Common parts supplied for mounting include:

• x Wire fan clips
• 4x Nuts
• 4x Long screws
• 4x Screws for LGA2011
• 4x Black plastic spacers
• 2x AMD mounting brackets
• 2x Intel mounting brackets
• 2x User's manual
• 2x 120 x 120 x 25 mm fans
• 2x Black plastic fan shrouds
• 1x Backplate
• 1x Retention plate
• 1x Heatsink
• 1x Tube of thermal compound