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Thermaltake's Frio CPU cooler edges closer to retail

by Parm Mann on 11 February 2010, 16:01

Tags: Frio, Thermaltake (3540.TWO)

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qav3s

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Remember Thermaltake's high-end Frio CPU cooler? We first laid eyes on an early prototype build back at Computex in June 2009.

Back then, Thermaltake's internal benchmarks suggested the cooler could provide CPU temperatures roughly 10°C lower than a leading competitor. Bold claims, but with not a word spoken in regards to the cooler's progress in the following six months or so, we'd began to lose interest.

Fortunately, if you happen to think Frio - which by the way is Spanish for cool - has potential, it's now ready for a little more limelight ahead of a March 2010 release.

Thermaltake's cooler, pictured above, is said to "perform exceptionally well even during overclocking" and features five 8mm heatpipes connected to a nickel-coated mirror base and an array of aluminium fins.

Supported CPU sockets include Intel LGA1366, LGA1156 and LGA775, as well as AMD's AM3. We don't yet have any real-word performance numbers, but Thermaltake tells us that it managed to overclock a 3.33GHz Intel Core i7 975 Extreme Edition processor up to 4.2GHz - not bad going for an air cooler, and illustrative of Frio's claimed 220W heat dissipation capacity.

Expect to see it at next month's CeBIT, and then in stores toward the end of March priced at a competitive $59.99 excluding local US taxes. Want a closer look? Check out the following introductory video with Thermaltake's marketing manager Thore Welling:



HEXUS Forums :: 8 Comments

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going to get cloged up with dust quickly stopping all air flow in my openion
4.2GHz is pretty poor for an i7 975, my 920 runs higher than that stable using an Akasa Nero V1 which is a £25 cooler.
hmm 80 degrees on prime 95 @4.2ghz
Georgy291
going to get cloged up with dust quickly stopping all air flow in my openion
No more than any other tower cooler…

And i've never had any problems with excessive dust build up in my case, and my PC is in my bedroom…

HW_90
4.2GHz is pretty poor for an i7 975, my 920 runs higher than that stable using an Akasa Nero V1 which is a £25 cooler.

Not all processors are made equally… Just because one will do that doesn't mean the rest will…

themaidenmaniac
hmm 80 degrees on prime 95 @4.2ghz

^^ See above response ^^


They say that the base is superiorly flat, but what about the IHS… If that is concave/convex then the base of the cooler is somewhat irrelevant, plus a mirror finish is not indicative of a flat surface… a parabola can have a mirror finish…

Then again it is marketed at OCers who won't be too fussed at lapping..

Redundant specs about the fan, who cares what the rotational speed of the fan is?…
It doesn't matter if the fan is spinning at 5,000,000 RPM if the blades are absolute pap, some figures on airflow + pressure should have been used, especially since it is aimed at OCers…

Sounds like standard Thermaltake cruft to me… Saying they're targeting the OCers and actually going for those that just don't know any better…
^ Uh, I would care if the fan goes at 5M RPM, there would be no way I'll let that thing in my case ;)
To be honest, I always take the measurement they give us, be it noise or airflow pressure with a huge pint of salt. To some extent RPM is kind of handy for me because in my experience, anything above 1200RPM is going to be audible inside a case so I can almost rule it out for my needs.