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Thermalright Ultima-90 775 Heatsink Review

Manufacturers product page-Thermalright Ultima 90 heatsink
Product Number-Ultima 90
Price-$37.80@Directcanada
Availability-In stock

This review showcases the Thermalright Ultima 90 775 cpu heatsink that has won rave reviews on "the net" I decided to buy and install one as part of my upgrade path that will eventually lead to an overclocked quad gaming system. As part of the package I also purchased a Scythe S-FlexSFF21E 120mm fan to use in conjunction with the Ultima 90.


Feature (from Thermalright website)

• Six-heatpipe design for extra fast heat transfer
• Stepping fins to hold 92mm/120mm fans
• Light and easy installationHigh performance, low noise level at competitive price

Technical Spec.

Dimension:L115 x W55 x H139 (heatsink only)
Weight:460g (heatsink only)

Motherboard Compatibility
INTEL: All Intel Socket LGA775 processors
AMD: Athlon64 / FX / X2 / Opteron Socket AM2 processors
Socket 939 compatible with 939 Bolt thru kit , sold separately.

Packaging and Accessories

Include in the kit is mounting hardware for Intel socket 775 and AMD AM2 cpus, thermal compound, 120mm and 9omm fan clips and instructions. I found the instructions clear and easy to use. The installation went witout any problems.



System used
Processor-Intel Q6600 (stock)
Processor cooling-Thermalright Ultima-90 775
Motherboard-ASRock 4CoreDual VSTA
Ram-Buffalo Firestix FSX800D2C 2x 1gb.
Harddrives-WD 500 gb SATA2-Maxtor 200 gb IDE
Case-Coolermaster Elite RC-330
Case cooling-2x120mm Coolermaster fans
PSU-Corsair 620
Graphics card-ATI X800XL

The first thing I did prior to installation was to get some "prior" (stock Intel cooler) temperatures to compare the "after" (Thermalright Ultima-90) temperatures to. I started by picking up a cheap indoor/outdoor digital thermometer to monitor ambient temperatures outside and inside the computer case.

Stock Intel heatsink\fan

The numbers I recorded with the indoor/outdoor thermometer were:
Ambient room temp 20.7C
Inside case temp 28.1C

Then using core temp I recorded the processor temperatures while folding with the Windows SMP client...... (the numbers are hard to read but they are 68C 67C 69C 69C)




and then added four instances of the Orthos utility to drive temperatures up.(73C 71C 73C 71C)

Once I had established those numbers I began the install of the Ultima-90.

I removed the motherboard to facilitate the install of the strengthening backplate,and, as you can see by my photo, I had good coverage on the stock Intel heatsink with thermal compound.



I installed the 775 back plate,





the 775 upper side plates,




and installed new heatsink and fan using Arctic Silver 5 thermal compound.





Once that was all done I put the unit back together (also did some cable management that I was putting off) and fired it up.


I then compared the new readings with the same parameters that I had initially used.

Thermalright Ultima-90 heatsink
Recorded with indoor\outdoor thermometer;
Ambient room temperature 20.4
Inside case temperature 23.5

New temps folding (51C 48C 50C 49C)



And stress testing (56C 54C 56C 54C)




Well it is clear that there is an overall temperature drop, even inside the case! This, of course is partly due to the orientation of the heatsink fan which blows directly onto the exhaust fan at the rear of the case. The graph comparing the two coolers tells the tale:




Based on a temperature drop that averages 18.75C while folding and 17C while folding and running Orthos, I would say this is a very effective cooler and I rate it "HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!"
Next step.. install a 8800GT video card (if it ever gets here), upgrade mobo and get overclocking!

(My apologies for any poor quality graphics and any blatant format copying, I will get better as I learn how to use this website.)