Thermalright IFX-10 Motherboard Backside Cooler Review

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

When you first pick up this cooler you will be amazed at how light it is. It’s not flimsy, it’s just for a piece of kit of this size it is amazingly light. It’s almost as if the heatpipes are not filled with a heat transfer medium but helium or even unobtainium. So for anyone worrying about added stress on their motherboard, the simple answer is don’t worry. The amount of extra pressure is nearly negligible and if it does as it promises, you can always go with a lighter cooler to help counteract its additional weight.

The next thing one notices is that this cooler is big. It does take up a lot of room and when they say you need a minimum of 7cm clearance above your motherboard they are not kidding. This cooler will not fit in a CM 690 and if your case has a removable motherboard tray you may want to make sure that there is enough room for it to slide back in when this is installed. Nothing would be worse than installing it just to realize that your brand new cooling upgrade + computer motherboard with tray will no longer fit inside your case!


For others who may worry that the back of your motherboard has many pin-outs that can easily short out your system if they come in contact with anything metal (say the metal heatpipes of a certain cooler for instance); once again the quick answer is: its been taken care. Thermalright has already thought of this and has run an anti static strip the full length of the heat pipes, so that any part of the unit which could conceivably come in contact with the motherboard has been protected. This long anti-static strip is the same material they use on their backplates for numerous years, so you can rest assured that it will do its job without any problems.


While all of this is interesting, what really stood out was the inclusion of the four screws and a brief mention on in the pamphlet about it being compatible with any pushpin cooler. In a move that is nothing short of brilliant Thermalright has come up with a solution to many a buyer’s woe; as there is nothing worse than buying a relatively heavy aftermarket cooler, getting it home and realizing that it relies on the fairly flimsy pushpin mounting system. If this has ever happened to you then those four little screws will be the answers to your prayers. With a simple twist and pull you can remove those pushpins on your CPU cooler and use the included screws to securely mount darn near any cooler to Thermalright’s kick ass backplate. No more worrying about plastic fatigue and having it fail, letting your pound plus cooler to crash into your expensive video card. Heck, even if the IFX-10 turns out to be an answer in search of a question I know I'd buy it just for this mounting kit (please note that this kit is also sold separately by Thermalright so we are exaggerating a bit to make a point).