Asus Triton 77 CPU Cooler Review

Manufacturer Product Page: ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
Availability: Soon
Price: Approx. $50 (Projected Canadian MSRP)
Warranty Length: 1 year



Asus is probably one of the best know brand name computer component manufacturers in the world and even people who have never even thought about building their own computer have heard of ASUS. ASUS is easily one of the largest component manufacturers and are even big enough to be listed on the Fortune 500 list. In fact there is a better than 1 in 3 chance that your personal computer is powered by an ASUS motherboard. While people know ASUS mainly for their motherboards, graphic cards and to a lesser extent laptops, what they are not readily known for is CPU cooling solutions.

Brand recognition is all well and good but in today’s ultra competitive marketplace, it is results that matter and just because a customer uses one of your motherboards does not mean they will automatically use your CPU cooling solution. While ASUS may not be well known for the coolers (yet), this does not mean that they are not serious about breaking into this highly lucrative (if heavily stratified) market. ASUS knows that one cooler to rule them all will not work and has rather gone for a more subtle approach at market dominance. They don’t want to have one cooler as top dog, they want a pack of them all equally good, all equally attractive, but all equally focused on different niche’s of the marketplace. This is a bold move as most companies like to make a cooler that has a broad an appeal as possible.

Today we will be looking at ASUS' latest foray into the Silent CPU Cooler marketplace: named the Triton 77, this cooler has a unique upwards cooling philosophy and is one of the many new CPU cooling products annunced by ASUS in the last few months. ASUS claims that this cooler (with its bottom mounted fan that blows air up from the motherboard rather than down) can help keep passively cooled motherboard parts cooled by up to "10 - 15°C". Maybe it is just us, but if this cooler sucks 15 or even 10°C from the hot VRM's on a motherboard than that must mean that the air used to cool the CPU heatsink (i.e. its actual job) will be 10 to 15°c hotter than ambient. This does raise an interesting question, namely: If it cools the motherboard by that much does that mean that its CPU cooling potential has been lowered by the same amount?