OCZ Gladiator MAX CPU Cooler Review

Installation

For all intents and purposes this cooler has the exact same installation process as that of the Vendetta 2. Even though it is a pushpin installation method, you should really should remove the motherboard as the fan installation does require a bit more “elbow room” than is usually available inside a typical computer case. It is a shame as pushpin coolers biggest advantage is their ease of use, but any speed advantages afforded by those relatively easy plungers is negated by the tedious fan installation. Fast or not, these enthusiast grade, overclocking friendly coolers are crying out for a real backplate system and it is a shame OCZ did not take the time to tweak this area as they did the base of the cooler.


If you follow the included instructions, what OCZ will have you do is first mount the two 775 mounting brackets to the bottom of the heatsink. This is easy and straight forward and we once again we had no issue with this step. What you do next is place a small amount of TIM on each of the metal posts and then install the heatsink by pushing down on the four pushpins (alternate corners, two at a time).

This however is not what the manual tells you to do; rather OCZ tells you to make a pea size amount of TIM in the center of the base of the heatsink. Some people may skip this crucial step as it is fairly unique to this style of cooler and not everyone knows about it. We are sure OCZ knows about it as many reviewers now do it this way, so we are curious why their manual recommends an inefficient procedure which can not give optimum results. OCZ please, we beg you: update your manual!


While we do take issue with the lack of proper instructions in the manual, this issue pales in comparison to the main problem we found with this cooler’s installation. For all you who have read the Xigmatek and Vendetta 2 review you already know the next dreaded step we are talking about is the fan installation.


OCZ fully expects you to first install those four anti-vibration mounts to the fan by threading them through the hole and then pulling tight. They have little pyramid shaped parts that when pulled through keep the rubber mount tight to the fan and then install the whole shebang onto the heatsink. This is when the “fun” begins; as this is one royal pain to do. It may sound easy on paper but in real world application it is a down right painful experience where you may even get cut by the heatsink while following OCZ’s instructions.


It is for this reason we strongly recommend you either first remove the motherboard from the case and follow these “interesting” instructions or do what we did: install those little pieces of rubber onto the heatsink first, then install the heatsink and then thread the four ends through the fan and using a pair pliers seat the fan on them.

By doing it our way you can easily install the Vendetta 2 without first removing the motherboard and have it all done in under five minutes. Doing it their way, well lets just say it will be a lot longer and leave it at that.


On the positive side, the Gladiator is designed so that it will not interfere, touch or bang into anything but the tallest of Northbridge heatsinks or RAM modules. In point of fact you have about 39mm from the bottom of the first fin to the bottom of the base, which is 2mm less clearance than you get with the Vendetta 2. With this hard number you can easily measure your NB heatsink and see if the Gladiator will fit before you spend any of your hard earned moeny. As you will see in the installation section we had no problem with our Gigabyte board.


Before we continue, we would like to take this opportunity to show you the contact patch of an Intel 775 CPU on the Vendetta 2 (left picture) and the Gladiator Max (right picture). We do this by first applying FAR too much thermal compound and then installing the heatsink and letting it sit for awhile.

As you can see in the above picture, having four heatpipes sounds better than three, and usually we agree more is always better. However, in this instance four is down right inefficient when compared to three. You could stick a dozen more heatpipes on each side and you still won’t get any better cooling, and having four spaced apart like this is mostly for marketing PR reasons will not improve thermal efficiency. It seems this cooler really is designed for the larger AMD AM2 CPUs (or the upcoming I7) as with those CPUs all four heatpipes would be more engaged. As it is, the outer two heatpipes barely make contact with an LGA 775 CPU whereas the three heatpipes on the Vendetta 2 make full contact without a problem.

Either way, it will be interesting to see if this perceived inefficiency translates to higher Intel dual and quad results.