Three Thermalright True Spirit Heat Sinks, Reviewed
Technical Specifications And Design
| Thermalright | True Spirit 140(BW) | True Spirit 120M(BW) | True Spirit 90M |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cooler Dimensions (HxWxD) | 170x155x53 mm (Without Fan) | 145x132x60 mm (Without Fan) | 125x102x56 mm (Without Fan) |
| (Note Offset Attachment of Base Plate and Fins) | (Note Offset Attachment of Base Plate and Fins) | ||
| 170x155x80 mm (With Fan and Decoupling) | 145x132x78 mm (With Fan and Decoupling) | 125102x75 mm (With Fan and Decoupling) | |
| Weight | 614/786 g (Without/With Included Fan) | 464/614 g (Without/With Included Fan) | 284/388 g (Without/With Included Fan) |
| Material | Aluminum, Copper | Aluminum, Copper | Aluminum, Copper |
| CPU Contact Surface | High-gloss Polished Base Plate | High-gloss Polished Base Plate | High-gloss Polished Base Plate |
| Number of Heatpipes | 6x6 mm | 4x6 mm | 3x6 mm |
| Fins | 50 | 48 | 43 |
| Fan | Thermalright TR-TY147 | Thermalright TR-12025-BW | Thermalright TR-9225-BW |
| 140x140x25 mm | 120x120x25 mm | 92x92x25 mm | |
| 900-1300 RPM | 600-1300 RPM | 600-2000 RPM | |
| 4-Pin PWM | 4-Pin PWM | 4-Pin PWM | |
| Cable Length | Approx. 310 mm | Approx. 310 mm | Approx. 310 mm |
| Interface Compatibility | Intel 775 1156 1366 1155 2011 AMD AM2(+) AM3(+) FM1 FM2 | Intel 775 1156 1366 1155 2011 AMD AM2(+) AM3(+) FM1 FM2 | Intel 775 1156 1366 1155 2011 AMD AM2(+) AM3(+) FM1 FM2 |
| Warranty | 2 Years | 2 Years | 2 Years |
| Price | Approx. $50 (Street Price) | Approx. $43 (Street Price) | Approx. $28 (Street Price) |
The two larger coolers have fans (the 140 mm TR-TY147 and the 120 mm TR-12025-BW) that are clearly optimized for quiet operation with a maximum RPM of 1300. The 90M comes with a smaller fan, the 92 mm TR-9225-BW, with a higher 2000 RPM ceiling necessitated by its more compact dimensions. All three fans come in a black-and-white color scheme that is standard for Thermalright’s budget lines.
On all three heat sinks, the cooling fins are curved up on one side and down on the other, though they differ in material thickness. The largest heat sink sports the thickest fins. Moreover, the True Spirit models with Ms in their product names (the 120M[BW] and 90M) are bent where they exit the base plate, resulting in an offset toward the back of the cooler.
This is the same design borrowed from Thermaltake's Macho family. Its purpose is to keep the cooler from blocking RAM slots on the motherboard, even with a fan installed. Only the True Spirit 140(BW) does not have bent heat pipes. Consequently, it pushes up against the RAM module in the slot closest to the CPU interface if it has a tall heat spreader. Memory can still be installed, but there's a good chance it'll get pushed aside by the cooler's fan.
Heat pipes are also arranged differently, depending on cooler. The True Spirit 90 M lines them up straight. They're offset pairs on the 120M(BW). And the 140M(BW) has parallel rows of three.
Thermalright’s two smaller coolers have retaining collars on all four sides to stabilize them and protect them from bent fins. The True Spirit 140(BW)’s fins are already so sturdy that it would take a lot of brute force to mess them up.
The heat pipes run through the base plate of all three heat sinks. Some light residue where they make their exit shows that they are soldered in place. The bottoms of the base plates are polished to a high-gloss finish.
Not all sites and reviews used Delta temps.
Nice review but kind of renders it moot for comparison out of the Silverstone and THermalright Scope.
Also, please stick to the same units.
More comparisons would have been nice.
Other then that, those are some fantastic coolers, even though the thermal probe on FX-8350 under windows gives me flawed measurements in idle, under load it's quite good.
Diameter has a lot to do with it - it's more to do with tip velocity than actual RPM. Your fan was likely about 40-50mm.
I've got 40mm fans that are near silent at 3K RPM. You can get 40mm fans that do 13K.
Same old stuff; different day.
@SpadeM: Seems like I just did not RTFM close enough
@all: We just startet off with the new system for CPU cooler testing and had to start somewhere - there will be more results and coolers coming soon
Your very informative review in July compared 9 large coolers recommended the Noctua's NH-U14S. And I cannot tell if the "Smart Buy" recommendation here makes the Thermalright a better choice or not. Plus the top picks at Newegg are well known models from Cool Master, Zalmen, Noctua and Rosewell.
I'm really curious how these top models really stack up. Thanks
The fact that the little guy managed to (barely) handle the overclock was a bit surprising, but really cool to see. Thermalright makes good cooling solutions for its customers.
The noise levels seemed a bit inflated, but then I noticed that they said "distance: 30cm." Using the lazy-man's method of correcting the noise to a distance of 1m, I think that works out to mean we could shave off about 10db from the obtained results. (It's within the ball-park, at least. Using the numbers from another review, the Silverstone AR01 had a difference of 17db.)
Is seems like the bearing of the TR-TY147 is of a better quality compared to the TR-12025-BW and TR-9225-BW, whose bearings are a little more noisy. Anyway, they're still "okay" and you don't have to push the fans towards max rpm