MonsterLabo's 'The Heart' is a Monstrous 7-Pound Passive CPU & GPU Cooler

News
By Niels Broekhuijsen
published

Be careful installing this one

(Image credit: FanlessTech)

MonsterLabo is a four-person team that began designing a case and cooling system called “The First” back in February 2018. As spotted by FanlessTech, the startup is now also selling the passive “The Heart” cooler that’s otherwise built into “The First” as a standalone cooler. As wicked as it is, it won’t be a piece of cake to install it in your system for one simple reason: The cooler measures almost a foot tall and weighs almost 7 pounds.

(Image credit: MonsterLabo)

To be precise, it weighs in at 6.6 lbs and has a footprint of 200 by 185 mm. The cooler towers 265 mm tall, making it the world’s largest CPU cooler to fit in a consumer PC. However, not only is it a CPU cooler, it is also a GPU cooler. The unit crawls around the entire graphics card with heatpipes to cool the GPU.

(Image credit: MonsterLabo)

(Image credit: MonsterLabo)

As expected for such a design, installation won’t be possible in most cases (pun not intended). Compatibility with GPUs is also bound to be quite limited, relying on coincidentally having the GPU located on the graphics card exactly where the contact surface is. Sadly, MonsterLabo doesn’t give any information about compatibility, nor about the unit’s thermal dissipation power. It does specify the cooling power for The First, which is rated at a max 100W CPU load and a 120W GPU. Adding a 500-RPM 140mm fan would bump those numbers to 140 W and 160 W, respectively. We reckon the numbers would be similar if you used the cooler in another case.

The Heart is available in black and white, and costs €180 euros, which translates to about $200 USD. The real catch here is that you really have to be aware of what you’re getting into if you want one of these.

Niels Broekhuijsen
Niels Broekhuijsen

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

10 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Darkbreeze
    Why, would anybody even entertain the idea of using this monstrosity and the obvious complications related to doing so, when it can only handle CPUs with a TDP that a 212 EVO or Gammaxx 400 could handle easily, not to mention something stouter like the U12A or U14S. Obviously, for 140w TDP CPUs you'd want something a little more capable like one of the very deep Thermaltake, or Scythe coolers, or a double finstack model from Noctua or Phanteks, but even those would be magnitudes more hassle free than this thing. Even more obviously, even a small 240mm AIO could manage what this leviathan cannot, which is manage those workloads without the need for eliminating all available real estate. Just makes no sense to me.
    Reply
  • USAFRet
    Why?
    Because we can.

    Doesn't make it a good idea, but there it is.
    Reply
  • Darkbreeze
    True. But it sure seems like those resources would have been better used being put towards designing and bringing to fruition something that might actually have stood a chance of ending up in somebody's build, rather than just an expensive, overly large paper weight.
    Reply
  • stundrah
    Darkbreeze said:
    Why, would anybody even entertain the idea of using this monstrosity and the obvious complications related to doing so, when it can only handle CPUs with a TDP that a 212 EVO or Gammaxx 400 could handle easily, not to mention something stouter like the U12A or U14S. Obviously, for 140w TDP CPUs you'd want something a little more capable like one of the very deep Thermaltake, or Scythe coolers, or a double finstack model from Noctua or Phanteks, but even those would be magnitudes more hassle free than this thing. Even more obviously, even a small 240mm AIO could manage what this leviathan cannot, which is manage those workloads without the need for eliminating all available real estate. Just makes no sense to me.

    A music production or recording studio that requires a 100% silent build would make use of this. Those workstations rarely overclock because they need maximum stability, which makes this cooler's TDP good enough to run a decent music production rig. I run a small home studio and noise is a very important issue for me. I recently went full SSD for all my sound libraries for that reason. If this can cool my 2700x then I would gladly consider this option.
    Reply
  • USAFRet
    stundrah said:
    A music production or recording studio that requires a 100% silent build would make use of this. Those workstations rarely overclock because they need maximum stability, which makes this cooler's TDP good enough to run a decent music production rig. I run a small home studio and noise is a very important issue for me. I recently went full SSD for all my sound libraries for that reason. If this can cool my 2700x then I would gladly consider this option.

    They'd put the workstation horsepower in another room, isolated and soundproofed.
    Reply
  • Hardware Geek
    This was obviously designed for one specific motherboard and gpu. I'd bet it would be nearly impossible and not worth the effort it would take to find another compatible motherboard. Of anything this is more of a marketing stunt than anything else.
    Reply
  • Darkbreeze
    stundrah said:
    A music production or recording studio that requires a 100% silent build would make use of this. Those workstations rarely overclock because they need maximum stability, which makes this cooler's TDP good enough to run a decent music production rig. I run a small home studio and noise is a very important issue for me. I recently went full SSD for all my sound libraries for that reason. If this can cool my 2700x then I would gladly consider this option.

    No, they'd make use of THIS, that is actually WORTH spending money on and does come with any of the complications or configuration nonsense that comes from the heart. Pun intended.

    https://www.amazon.com/Silverstone-Heligon-LGA1155-LGA1156-HE02/dp/B009K1PZYG/?tag=akshatblog198-20
    Or this:

    https://www.anandtech.com/show/14486/noctua-shows-off-concept-fanless-cpu-cooler-up-to-120w-of-cooling-performance
    Reply
  • stundrah
    Darkbreeze said:
    No, they'd make use of THIS, that is actually WORTH spending money on and does come with any of the complications or configuration nonsense that comes from the heart. Pun intended.

    https://www.amazon.com/Silverstone-Heligon-LGA1155-LGA1156-HE02/dp/B009K1PZYG/?tag=akshatblog198-20
    Or this:

    https://www.anandtech.com/show/14486/noctua-shows-off-concept-fanless-cpu-cooler-up-to-120w-of-cooling-performance

    You're comparing products with totally different functions. These do not cool GPUs. Also, the TDP on the first one is lower when fanless.

    USAFRet said:
    They'd put the workstation horsepower in another room, isolated and soundproofed.

    That is the ideal solution, but building and soundproofing a separate room, then managing your cables through a wall, seems like a lot more of a hassle than planning a build with this passive cooler. Besides, you can't always have your computer in a separate room. In my situation, my apartment studio has no other room close, and my lease doesn't allow me to build an extra wall or something. My closet is already soundproofed and used as a recording booth, so I can't have noise in there either.

    I posted this cooler on my music production forum, and there are already producers interested in it.
    Reply
  • JonDol
    stundrah said:
    You're comparing products with totally different functions. These do not cool GPUs. Also, the TDP on the first one is lower when fanless.



    That is the ideal solution, but building and soundproofing a separate room, then managing your cables through a wall, seems like a lot more of a hassle than planning a build with this passive cooler. Besides, you can't always have your computer in a separate room. In my situation, my apartment studio has no other room close, and my lease doesn't allow me to build an extra wall or something. My closet is already soundproofed and used as a recording booth, so I can't have noise in there either.

    I posted this cooler on my music production forum, and there are already producers interested in it.

    Hello,

    I'm not sure there is a lot more hassle routing your cables through then wall than building a machine around THIS particular cooler and if your peoples are into the silent computing you'll rather skip this one.

    There are better solutions, handling more power and with smaller footprints (which also makes them excellent living room machines). For the 'time is money' guys there on the shelf solutions like the AirTop 3 (https://fit-iot.com/web/products/airtop3/airtop3-specifications/ ) and for the DIY guys there is Streacom DB4 Fanless chassis (https://streacom.com/products/db4-fanless-chassis) which could be upgraded with the Streacom's LH4 heatpipes and DB4 GPU kit to reach up to 110 W CPU + 75 W GPU. This build is easier than MonsterLabo's one (take any mini ITX mobo and any Nvidia single bracket under 20 cm length graphic card and your are good to go). Streacom is even kind enough to provide you a 3D STP format file for their acrylic top so you could mill your own copper/aluminium top to push that power enveloppe even further.

    I'm into the silent computing for long years now and these are some of the cheaper and easier options I've found so far. I already have a Streacom DB4 gaming machine and I won't hesitate to go again with DB4.

    Cheers
    Reply
  • Darkbreeze
    stundrah said:
    You're comparing products with totally different functions. These do not cool GPUs. Also, the TDP on the first one is lower when fanless.



    That is the ideal solution, but building and soundproofing a separate room, then managing your cables through a wall, seems like a lot more of a hassle than planning a build with this passive cooler. Besides, you can't always have your computer in a separate room. In my situation, my apartment studio has no other room close, and my lease doesn't allow me to build an extra wall or something. My closet is already soundproofed and used as a recording booth, so I can't have noise in there either.

    I posted this cooler on my music production forum, and there are already producers interested in it.

    Well, there are always people interested in horrible products, so that isn't surprising. Anybody that was to buy this BECAUSE it is a dual purpose cooler, is foolish in the extreme. From any viewpoint or camp, there are better options. Besides which, most people doing high end audio work don't particularly need an incredibly capable graphics card so there are likely already passive workstation cards available for anybody doing production work in a music studio that would make this useless or at least unwise. But hey, there are a lot of people out there that bought wheel spinners, pet rocks and magic 8-balls, so I have no doubt there will be somebody willing to give their cash away on one of these as well.

    I just can't get behind a product that it outperformed by other products half it's size that don't require you to use specific hardware in order to be useful.
    Reply