Manufacturer Product Page: TMG A1 CL-P0371
Product Number:CL-P0371
Availability: Now
Price: $35.48 at NCIX
Warranty: 6 years




"Ideas originate from humanity, realizing ideas is our belief."
- Kenny Lin, Thermaltake CEO.


If your were to say the word “Thermaltake” to one hundred different people you would probably get many variations on two general yet different answers. Some people will say “cpu heatsinks” and others will say “computer cases”. To this reviewer the name Thermaltake conjurors up happy memories of the huge (for the time) all copper Volcano 7. It was this (then) revolutionary all copper heatsink that proved to me that a cooler could be more than just something that came in the box with the cpu. Even though it has been years since the release of the Volcano 7, Thermaltake is still going strong and are releasing more heatsinks than ever. They come in all shapes, sizes and prices but today we will be looking at one of their less expensive models: the TMG A1 AM2 CPU cooler.

The after market cpu cooling industry has changed over the years and it has grown and matured into a very exciting marketplace. It has become a mixture of cutting edge technology, engineering and marketing that is quiet literally changing the face of the computer industry. In this hyper competitive marketplace terms like “thermal resistance” and “air turbulence” blend seamlessly with words like “aesthetics” and “noise levels”. It is no longer considered “good enough” to just have a huge piece of copper coupled to a high-speed buzz saw fan. Coolers now have to not only contend with increasing thermal loads, but have to be quiet and in some cases need to be pleasing to the eye as well. This presents a bit of a problem for the manufacturers of these heatsinks since they either need a "one design fits all" approach or they take the path Thermaltake seems to love: release many different heatsinks for various applications.

Thermaltake still makes some very good after market coolers and while they no longer wear the crown of “king of the coolers” they are still recognized as an industry leader. The subject of today’s review is one of Thermaltake’s Thermal Maximum Grade CPU heatsinks called the A1. This cooler is designed to fit most of AMD’s socket cpu’s, whether they be the older socket 754, the venerable 939 or even the newer AM2 and newest AM2+ CPUs. It is backed up by Thermaltake's 6-Year TMG warranty and comes in at a pretty trim $40CAD MSRP. Not only is it on the inexpensive side, but it promises good cooling while remaining extremely quiet thanks to a PWM-controlled fan. All of this sounds great but it will be interesting to see how the Thermaltake A1 performs in our tests.