Intel's Super Tall TS15A CPU Cooler Fits on LGA1200 Sockets

Intel announced a product change notification [PDF] on May 15 about its BXTS15A CPU cooler, clarifying that it does fit on the new LGA1200 sockets. The product itself hasn't changed, but the PCN details the new packaging that it will ship in to bring it up to date with the times.

The BXTS15A is Intel's high-power CPU cooler for CPUs with TDPs of up to 130W. It comes in at 90mm tall and was launched in 2015, carrying an MSRP of $26.

That the cooler is compatible with LGA1200 sockets is no surprise. That's because the LGA1200 socket has a different pin count than the LGA115x, but the mounting mechanism hasn't changed.

Interestingly, Intel hasn't released a similar notice for its liquid cooler. That unit should also fit on the LGA1200 socket, though it also hasn't been available on Amazon for quite some time.

We're curious whether Intel will come out with a bigger liquid cooler to replace its current liquid cooler, given that the new Intel Comet Lake-S desktop CPUs like churning through lots of power.

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Niels Broekhuijsen is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He reviews cases, water cooling and pc builds.

3 Comments Comment from the forums

RealBeast

I'm surprised that they can actually sell 130W HSF for $26 (an ugly one at that). ;)
Reply
cryoburner

RealBeast said:
I'm surprised that they can actually sell 130W HSF for $26 (an ugly one at that).
Why? It's still a cheaply-built stock cooler with a little 80mm fan. It's possible to get a lower-end 120mm tower cooler for around the same price, that should cool as well or better while being far quieter. As a reminder, this cooler only achieves that level of performance by running its fan at up to 3850 RPM, around double the speed of most other coolers, making it rather noisy. And Intel's higher core-count offerings will still undoubtedly be thermal throttling on this thing.

Here's a video Linus did on this cooler a couple years back...

UPdpS_6ln-oView: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPdpS_6ln-o

I was kind of wondering if Intel might update their stock coolers to better deal with the increased heat output of these higher core-count processors, but it looks like that probably won't be the case. Maybe they'll include somewhat larger ones with some of them, but these are still the same cheap Intel stock coolers that they've been using for a while, and that they've actually been cutting down over the years rather than improving.

Meanwhile, AMD has reinvented their coolers in recent years, and they not only cool better than Intel's offerings, but also look a lot better, with nice looking shrouds and even RGB lighting on some models. It's weird how Intel can't even spend a few cents on a plastic shroud and something to wrap the multicolored spaghetti wires with to at least make their coolers look a little more modern.

Edit: And, now I return after seeing the article a little further down showing that Intel does in fact appear to have improved their coolers a little this generation, at the very least making them look somewhat better. The coolers are still super-thin, or maybe even thinner than before, and I doubt cooling performance has improved much, but at least they appear to have restored the copper core and dressed them up with a black color scheme and braided cable to modernize their appearance a bit. They still look a bit janky compared to AMD's Wraith coolers, but at least they don't look like something straight out of the nineties now.
Reply
Darkbreeze

cryoburner said:
Why? It's still a cheaply-built stock cooler with a little 80mm fan.

And THAT, is exactly why it's surprising they can sell these for 26 bucks. For another five to ten dollars, currently, and normally for as low as occasionally 19 dollars, you can get a variety of coolers with much better performance. So that's why it's surprising.

Considering most consumers are clueless, I guess it's really not surprising.
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