Thermaltake FRIO CPU Cooler Review

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Product: FRIO
Manufacturer: Thermaltake
Supplied by: Thermaltake
Price: 60USD/RM191
Launch Date: Feb 2010

CPU cooler is one of the major product lines of Thermaltake and FRIO was just launched recently in order to respond Intel latest six cores processors where thermal power and die size are increased. Thermaltake FRIO is a tower CPU cooler with 5 x Ø8 mm U-shaped copper heat pipes, dual fans supported and thermal dissipation factor support up to 220W excellent cooling capacity.

Company Profile

Started from the passion for the DIY (Do It Yourself) concepts and the desires to realize the goal of "Ideas are originated from humanity; Realizing ideas is our belief." Thermaltake Technology was established in January, 1999 and has been market to the world with "Thermaltake" brand name ever since.

Thermaltake became the number one choice for PC DIY enthusiast worldwide with its innovatively breakthrough product designs. The concept of "Quality", "Performance", and "Reliability" have been incorporated into the design of Thermaltake PC Chassis, Cooler and Power Supply to assure the components meet the highest standard.

Features

Ultimate Overclocking Thermal Structure Design
- excellent cooling capacity - supports 220W
- 0.5mm aluminum fins with large surface for heat dissipation
- 5 x Ø8 mm-U-shape copper heat pipes for accelerated heat conduction
- tower side flow design efficiently optimizes cooling performance.

Ultra Powerful Dual 120mm VR Fan and Eye-Catching Cover
- 120 mm VR Fan, adjustable between 1200 and 2500 RPM max.
- additional 120mm Fan enhances cooling performance
- black and red cooler top add aesthetical appearance

Universal Socket Compatibility & Accessory Package
- universal socket support:
Intel: LGA1366, LGA1156, LGA775
AMD: AM3, AM2+, AM2
- premium thermal grease maximizes heat transfer

Specifications

Package & Contents

Thermaltake FRIO is packed by a pretty sturdy and quality paper container which is pretty eye-catching and attractive. All the major features of Thermaltake FRIO are written on the back of the box with some colorful diagrams.

The whole Thermaltake FRIO cooler and other accessories are well protected by two pieces of high quality foams. The accessories are multiple of socket brackets, a back bracket, two 120mm cooling fans, thermal compound, screws, rubber fan mounts and user's manuals.

Same with other high end coolers, Thermaltake FRIO can support multiple of sockets hence it comes with couple of mounting brackets to make it as a true universal CPU cooler. Another set of rubber fan mounts is included for second 120mm cooling fan as Thermaltake FRIO is pre-mounted with a single 120mm cooling fan.

Here are the complete details of Thermaltake FRIO accessories. Some washers are provided to protect the motherboard as over force will damage the circuit board. No worry about the multiple brackets as all of them are segregated and labeled well inside plastic bags.

A Closer Look on Thermaltake FRIO

There is no doubt that Thermaltake is one of the most innovative computer makers as their designs and products are always outstanding and think out of the box like Level 10 chassis which is really impressive. Thermaltake FRIO doesn't come with freak design but we like its color mixing very much; silver cooler, black fan holder, white fan blakes and red bracket holder.

Thermaltake FRIO is performance cooler which support up to 220W cooling factor hence there is no way to avoid such giant cooler; 139 x 98 x 165 mm (L x W x H). The overall weight of Thermaltake FRIO is over 1KG (1.042g) which is extremely heavy and much heavier than normal tower CPU coolers; make sure the cooler is secured firmly on the board else it will be disaster.

Unlike other tower CPU cooler, Thermaltake adds a semi-transparent black holder on top of the cooler so that the airflow can be centralized and further increase the cooling efficiency. From the top of the bracket, it is clearly shown that Thermaltake FRIO is equipped by five copper heat-pipes in U-shaped and are silver chromed.

Thermaltake FRIO supports dual 120mm cooling fans but only a single fan is pre-mounted on the cooler as it is not necessary for everyone to utilize both of the fans either compatible issue, noise problem or maybe a single fan is already enough to handle the processor well. Anyway the cooler bracket casing is ready for second 120mm cooling fan anytime, anywhere.

The black plastic casing of Thermaltake FRIO can be removed out easily from the cooler but have to be done carefully as the casing is pretty fragile. Same with standard cooler, Thermaltake FRIO is constructed by aluminum fin which is best heat dissipater and most affordable material in cooling industrial. All the aluminum fins are stacked neatly and we found that these aluminum fins are very sturdy and quality made.

Another unique selling point of Thermaltake FRIO is the 5 x Ø8 mm copper heat pipes which are silver chromed to avoid oxidation issue. HDT technology is not being used on Thermaltake FRIO but let us see whether is this cooler able to outperform others. All these five heat pipes are in U-shaped to maximize the heat transfer between processor and aluminum fins. There are mounting holes on both sides of the copper base for bracket installation.

The pre-mounted 120mm fan can be taken off from the Thermaltake FRIO easily by unfasten the clips; the fan is mounted on the bracket by using rubber fan mounts instead of screw; reducing operating noise. The 120mm cooling fan of Thermaltake FRIO is a 12V DC brushless fan with 0.5A. The fan speed , airflow, noise of this fan are 1200 - 2500RPM, 101.6CFM and 20-43dBA. The fan speed can be controlled by a simple built-in rheostat but we still prefer an external controller.

For better understanding regarding the airflow of Thermaltake FRIO, here is the illustrated diagram. Heat is transferred from processor to aluminum fins through heat pipes and get cool down by the both 120mm cooling fans; make sure one fan is intake fan while another one is exhaust fan else the cooling will be messed up.

Installation, Testing & Performance

Before proceed to the installation part of Thermaltake FRIO, it is always good to verify the compatibility on the system setup although this should be done much earlier before the purchase. Anyway Thermaltake FRIO should be working fine with most of the mid tower chassis and above but just to ensure the width of the chassis is more than 200mm since Thermaltake FRIO is a giant tower cooler.

First of all, right set of mounting brackets has to be selected together with back bracket according to the motherboard socket. Then install the mounting brackets on the copper base of Thermaltake FRIO by using four provided unique screws following by securing Thermaltake FRIO on the motherboard with the back bracket with another four screws. To be safe, remember to put some washers between the brackets and motherboard.

For a skilled user, the whole installation process should not take up more than 30 minutes including removing the old cooler for the system. However Thermaltake FRIO is a 1KG weight giant cooler, please ensure all the fastenings are well secure; double-check, triple-check else it might break the motherboard into pieces.

Test Bed

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8300 @ 2.83GHz
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3 (Gigabyte G31M-ES2L)
Heatsink: Thermaltake FRIO
Memory: Kingston HyperX 4GB DDR2 8500
Hard Drive: 250GB 7200RPM 8MB Seagate
Graphic Card: Galaxy GeForce GTX260+
Casing: Thermaltake Element V
PSU: Aerocool V12XT-800
Router: TRENDnet TEW-639GR
Optical Drive: HLDS DVD RW +/-
Monitor: Dell 22" Wide Screen LCD
Speaker: Edifier R501
Mouse: SteelSeries Ikari Laser
Mouse Pad: SteelSeries QcK+
HeadSet: SteelSeries 3H
Operating System: Microsoft XP Pro SP2/Vista Home Premium
Ambient Temperature: 27 Degree Celsius

Here are the cooling performance results of Thermaltake FRIO and it clearly shows Thermaltake FRIO is a another outstanding CPU cooler. Although all the results were captured in highest fan speed mode but the noise level of Thermaltake FRIO is still acceptable provided it is not 24/7. The lowest fan speed mode results weren't published here as it is not fair to compare with other coolers at maximum speed and it is no point to purchase an expensive cooler but running it on half of its performance; anyway Thermaltake FRIO performs quite well at silent mode as well where the noise is not audible at all. For better performance (for those hardcore enthusiasts), both of the 120mm cooling fans of Thermaltake FRIO can be swapped anytime with other much stronger CFM fans but have to remember that noise cannot be avoided at this rate.

Verdicts

With the latest launching of Intel six cores processors, Thermaltake FRIO has responded to it by launching a truly high performance CPU cooler which able to handle up to 220W cooling power. Thermaltake FRIO is pretty similar with most of the other high end tower CPU coolers but we would like to say Thermaltake FRIO comes with much attractive design, 5 x 8mm U-shaped copper heat pipes, built-in fan speed controller, dual 120mm fan supported and etc. 60USD for Thermaltake FRIO is not that expensive for such high end tower cooler compares with other similar performance coolers hence it is definitely worth for it to get a high quality product from a trustful brand.

Pros:

+ Support up to 220W cooling factor
+ Support dual 120mm cooling fans
+ 5 x 8mm silver chromed copper heat pipes
+ Massive of high quality aluminum fins
+ Universal cooler
+ Fabulous & attractive design
+ Built in fan speed controller
+ Great airflow
+ Rubber fan mounts

Cons:

- Super heavy; 1KG
- Built-in VR in fan is not so flexible

Thanks to Thermaltake for providing this sample for us to review.