Thermaltake Frio Extreme CPU Cooler

This is the robust fin arrangement of the Frio Extreme. It utilizes an offset in the fins that allow the airflow to be broken up and creates turbulence to make the transition of heat from the fins to the air much more effective.

The sides are a bit out of focus, but you only need to see the support of the fins bent over to support each other. In the middle of the dual tower is where I want to cover the cavity that gets created on all four sides of these two towers. This also gives the fan room to create pressure, again making this cooler more effective than if it was flat in there.

From the top you can see the even spacing of the six heat pipes as they terminate just proud of the top fins on the cooler. Between each pipe is an S-shaped embossing along with the Tt logos on both ends. This pattern is found on each of the fins and will also help to disturb the air once it passes the offset leading edges.

Under the nickel plating is a two piece copper sandwich that takes the heat from the CPU with the bottom half delivering it to the pipes. The top clamps the pipes into place and the tabs on the top allow the mounting bracket a way to keep a hold of this 1230 gram cooler.

Each of the aluminum fins is press fit over the six 6mm heat pipes for each of the two towers. The other thing to note is the tiny holes near the Tt logo, there are for the wire fan clips to run through when you add the fans to the Frio Extreme.

Where most companies solder their heat pipes into place inside of the base, this sample arrives with thermal paste clearly oozing out from where they meet.

Thermaltake said on the box that the base is polished to a mirror finish and they were not kidding one bit. Holding a razor to it, the corners are rounded just a bit, but the bulk of the mating surface is very flat and level.

Jumping ahead I grabbed the fans and the wire fan clips to install the fans on the Frio Extreme so you can see what the completed cooler looks like. The choice of these 140mm fans with the flat edges should limit their intrusion on the rest of the motherboard, but we will see soon enough if this is true.

Fully assembled and now weighing in at that 1230 grams I mentioned earlier, I am pleased to see that this is a full inch less deep that the Zalman cooler I just tested that swallowed the motherboard. With the Frio Extreme at least I can get to the 8-pin plug without the third fan option.