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- Date:
- Thursday , July 23, 2009
- Author:
- Marc Adams
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
Intel Core i7 Heatsink Roundup Q309
Thermalright TRUE processor cooler has been king of the hill for quite some time. Today we bring in four new challengers to see if any of them have what it takes to make our short list of coolers to buy for your next enthusiast box build.
Titan Fenrir
Named after the mythical wolf from Norse mythology, Fenrir was a fearsome creature that killed the god Odin during the events of Ragnarok. I don’t know about you but when it comes down to owning a piece of gear for my PC I prefer a name like Fenrir over CNSE-10X1366 any day. But hey, it’s just a name right? Besides, what we really care about is how it performs and right from the start the spec sheet gives justification to this cooler’s mythological namesake. With four extra thick 8mm heat pipes, a dense array of cooling fins and a heavy duty fan this cooler has a lot going for it. But is it a real contender or just a paper tiger?
Package & Specs
I don’t know if you can tell from these photos but the packaging Titan uses for the Fenrir is the accursed plastic retail packaging; the kind that requires a hacksaw and heavy duty work gloves to open. There is no graceful way to open this package which is useful for protecting the contents and frustrating for the end user. Take note Titan these little details matter to your customers. (Editor’s note: I have found that kitchen shears or "Lexan scissors" work very well for opening such packaging.)
Dimensions: 107 (L) x 124 (W) x 156 (H) mm
Weight: No DATA
Material: Copper heat pipes with aluminum cooling fins
Heat Pipes: 4 x 8mm full-length heat pipes
Compatibility:
- Intel LGA 1366
- Intel LGA 775
- AMD 754
- AMD 939
- AMD AM2/AM2+
- AMD K8
Fan:
- Size: 120 x 25mm
- Speed: 800 ~ 2150 RPM
- Noise Level: 17.2 ~ 39dB(A)
- Max Air Flow: 33.2 ~ 78.41 CFM
Contents & Flatness
Titan includes a lot of hardware to mount this cooler and even supports AMD CPUs all the way down to the K8 series of processors. Kudos to Titan for remembering the original Athlon owners out there.
Testing the flatness of direct heat pipe coolers is always a bit tricky due to the nature of their base. Using a razor blade to test for gaps we can clearly see some light slipping through which tells us the base may not make solid contact with the CPU. If this is the case then our temps will confirm it.
Photos
Here are some close up shots of Fenrir. The third photo is what caught my attention. Many manufacturers stagger the heat pipes so that the air passing through the fins directly hits the heat pipes for additional cooling. Here Titan keeps them in a straight line. We’ll find out soon enough how well this design works out.
Installation
The first thing I noticed when installing the Fenrir is that due to its asymmetrical design you will not be able to use a second fan for increased performance if you so choose. That is, without some DIY magic. The second thing I noticed and even more disturbing is just how far this cooler hangs over the first DIMM slot. Looking at the picture we can see the fan is actually pushing on the RAM in the second DIMM slot! This is not an ideal situation by fan and one that can lead to damage of the RAM or worse, the board. The Corsair RAM modules we use come with thin heat sinks affixed to the top edge of the module; if you use RAM with thicker cooling apparatus then the Fenrir is probably incompatible for your setup.
The Titan Fenrir has what I consider a fundamental design flaw. After installing the cooler I noticed the mounting plate was getting warm. It turns out that because the mounting plate sits flush inside the lower aluminum block and is itself made of metal and will conduct some of the heat from the CPU. The problem is that the mounting plate receives no airflow and so the heat stays right there and accumulates. Additionally, the base of the Fenrir was making poor contact with our CPU and only after three attempts was I able to achieve what I would consider decent contact.