![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Tuesday , October 17, 2000
- Author:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
Thermaltake SUPAORB
One orb, two fans, on a Socket A. Crank it up and get you 10,000 RPMs of coolness...
No messing around, right to business. If you are a [H]ardware freak you have most likely seen the Super Orb from Thermaltake over the last few days. Many pictures of it have been circulating around the community. If you have missed out, let me bring you up to speed.
What we have here is the next variation of the recently released Chrome Orb that has been specially designed for the Socket A AMD Durons and TBirds. That means that this orb will not shatter your new CPU into a fine dust when using it...properly. I never got one of those Chrome Orbs, so we can't really compare it to that but don't worry, we will find something for sure. This unit is VERY similar to the Gold Orb, but different in three respects. 1. It is much taller, therefore giving us more cooling fin surface area. 2. It actually has TWO FANS installed in it. 3. It is not gold but silver. Ok, maybe number three is pretty weak but if I would have said there were only two differences, all the really anal [H]ard|OCPers would have been giving me hell...
While it is VERY hard to show you here, if you look really close you can see the second fan tucked deep inside the orb. Just pretend you are an Orbocolgist and look way in there. (the big pic will help you out some) You will see how the red circle highlights one of the fins of the fan that is inside the orb... Not good enough for you? I tell you, sometimes you damn people are just too demanding. Ok, I will open it...jeez.
Make me bust up the only good SupaOrb we gots. Thank god for those cordless screwdrivers!! Seriously though, what you have is two fans perched on top of each other basically running in series. Now a good engineer buddy of mine explained to me a long time ago that running fans in series really does not do that much for airflow when we were making BlowHoles for the first time, but this is a bit different principle.
Instead of simply moving air through a single channel, what the two fans do in conjunction with one another is force the air out of the center of the SupaOrb and move it across more of the surface area of the fins. Sounds good to me. How bout you? Well if not, hang in there with us. This is how your SupaOrb should look when it arrives....but you have to buy one first..
You will notice that this orb has a much different mating surface than the Gold Orb, better known as the "Gorb" in the tight OverClocking Circles. The SupaOrb has a new type of clip and a larger mating surface. The SupaOrb clip gets rid of that nasty twisting of the Gorb that so many of the Durons did not like and the square surface makes use of the the little spongy feet that are stock on AMD Socket A CPUs. They keep it from tilting back and forth. This way, your HSF unit stays flush on your CPU die at all times...in theory.
Now one thing that we have learned around here is that pretty much every TIM that has been given to us by ANYONE has pretty much sucked. We think it is NEEDED that you remove the big TIM and get with the paste. A TIM is a Thermal Interface Material and the reason it is on there in the first place is to ensure that when the heatsink is put on, that it will actually do a decent job in conducting heat from the CPU die to the HSF (HeatSink & Fan). Did you get that? No TIMs. Down with TIM!!! TIMs a bastard!!
Now one thing that may be a major pain in the ass today is actually removing the TIM. In this case it is VERY STICKY. Also you will want to scrape off as much as possible before you start trying to wipe it off. Now don't just run to the garage and get a putty knife. THAT IS THE WRONG THING TO DO!! What you want to scrape with is something that is NOT as hard as the mating surface of the SupaOrb. That way you don't scratch up the surface which would end up giving you a less than perfect seat on the CPU die. Got it? I like to use this ugly purple pen cap that I stole from my old lady. First it makes me feel good to abuse this girly-colored pen cap, and second it works pretty well since it has a sharp yet soft edge that will not dig into the the surface. You will still have to get a cloth (most likely your shirt tail if you are like me) to buff the remains off. You should have a "perfect" shiny surface when you are done. If not, rub some more and get that sticky crap off there as it will hinder your quest for coolness.
UPDATE - We were talking to Jai of Insane Hardware this morning, and he mentioned that for the Thermaltake SupaOrb TIM to be worth much, it NEEDS to be burned in at 60°C. Hmmm, we were not aware of this and we have not gotten an official word back from Thermaltake. Still Jai seems to be all in a tizzy that it works super duper, but I am not holding my breath...
Now one thing about the SupaOrb is that it is NOT going to fit on every mainboard out there. Two that we had trouble with were the Soyo K7VTA and the ABIT KT7. The SupaOrb would NOT fit on the Soyo at all while the ABIT took a little work. The SupaOrb did fit on our ABIT board, but we had to push back the capacitors that sit next to the front of the socket.
While we did not have to make any mods to the board or the orb, the fit was tight. In fact I think that many of you may be a little put off by having to basically use force with the ABIT board. Everything went OK for us and no other boards we checked were as close. When and if you buy one of these SupaOrbs, you should SURELY ask about it fitting on your current setup.
Once you get it on, you should see something like this...if your board is not in a case....and you have a big blue Vid Card......and it is sitting on a big Styrofoam block. You know, actually your setup will probably not even come close to looking like this so here is one big thing you should make sure of, especially if you have a mid-tower or smaller. Make sure you have room to even mount the thing. This really goes for any big HSF like this. Check the pic up top as it is measured in inches and in centimeters. So now that we know all of this. How did it work?