Date:
Monday , January 10, 2000
Author:
Kyle Bennett
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Montac Arctic Circle aka "The Panaflo Orb"

Yes, shine the big silver love orb. Well not exactly. Everyone has been in a big commotion for the last several months over the greatness of an old Hewlett Packard Relic that has been named the "Panaflo Orb" in the Overclocking circles. Well someone has finally built a simple system to attach the thing to a Slot 1 style processor. We take a gander at it, decide if there is any greatness as rumored, and slap it up against the Alpha just to see it sweat. Good schtuff for heatsink freaks...

What is this magical orb we speak of?

Well, it actually has a pretty exciting history as far a heatsink/fan combos go. It was the brainchild of a Hewlett Packard engineer out of necessity. Well actually I don't know if this is why it was designed, but I do know, necessity is how so many came to be.

HP had a project rolling that involved a very hot running RISC processor. The project came to completion and the final specs were laid, the units put together and all was well...except for one thing. The RISC processor was one hot running little bitch. It was cranking out enough heat alone that is was locking itself up. Bummer eh?

Enter Polar Logic technology from HP dubbed the "Turbo Cooler". They had these "orbs" machined in Singapore from solid blocks of heavy-duty aluminum and then the fan was installed elsewhere, I think here in the states. Anyway, what we have come to refer to as the "Panaflo Orb", was really a saving grace for HP from way back. It is referred to by HP as Polar Logic / Arctic Cooler Technology and still lives on today. They recently designed the Snow Leopard HSF for the Xeon and supposedly HP still have tricks up their sleeves that they are soon to sprout. Hopefully some kickass alloy heatsink that will bring your CPU down to less than room temp. :) They are now telling us we will see the schiznit in 2000.

So why are they just now showing up on the market (widespread anyway)?

Good question, easy answer. 1. All those workstations are now antiquated and being removed from service. Someone bought all those for pennies on the dollar and started ripping them apart. They then saw this tricked out HSF and dumped them back into the retail channels. 2. There is no need to keep an inventory of them if replacement parts are not needed, again liquidation of "useless" inventory.

This is the "Orb" or "Arctic Cooler" as retailed by Montac.Com, if you have not seen one yet...

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Now that you have gotten to be close and personal with your orb, again why all the sudden attention after all these months?

As simple as it may be, a company by the name of Montac came up with this...yep just what you see below.

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All it is, is a set of allen bolts, washers, and aluminum plate that are used to properly attach the Orb to your Slot1 CPU. Now this is not all! Montac did have to drill the proper holes in the Orb, so this is not like a "just run to the hardware store" and you are in the biz scenario.

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Here is a decent pic of the back of the Arctic Circle, by Montac. We have now used the word "orb / Arctic Circle" so many times we will assume you know what we are referring to if we don't mention if by name, but rather HSF = Heatsink / Fan Combo.

The installation of the HSF is rather easy. You simply use some thermal grease (which is supplied by Montac), and an allen wrench (which is supplied by Montac), and screw the thing together. I will say this, if you are not careful, it is possible to tear up your CPU quickly. I was just cranking away happily (as usual) when I realized that my CPU looked like the lips on a smiley face. Did not take time to take a picture of that. Just make sure that you apply enough tension to hold the unit in place and not enough to break it in half. The PIIIs are actually quite a bit more forgiving than you might think when it comes to this.

So what do I end up with?

A pretty damn nice assembly in my opinion.

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Now that we know it looks cool. Has a funky name. Assembles fairly easily. How the hell does it perform? Is this thing worth your hard-earned green?