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FINAL THOUGHTS
Thermaltake designers threw everything but the kitchen sink into the V1: Vertical
radial fins, hooked heatpipes, all-copper construction and a fan sandwiched
in the middle of it all. For all their ingenuity, it only performs slightly
better than Thermaltake's previous offerings. It also retains the biggest problem
that plagued it's older kin: A loud, hard-mounted fan. The V1 demonstrated excellent
performance with the fan blowing fast and hard, but it was also fairly good with
the fan slowed for more acceptable noise. The quality of the fan noise is not great and it's made worse by the way the fan is secured.
Our opinion is that Thermaltake considers fan noise and mounting to be an unimportant detail.
When compared to the attention some manufacturers lavish on this matter, Thermaltake's approach seems
unenlightened: Thermalright separates the fan from their
heatsinks using rubber strips; Noctua, Arctic Cooling and Xigmatek use fan isolators. Thermaltake?
Screws on a metal bracket prone to vibration.
The V1 is Thermaltake's best performing CPU cooler we've reviewed to date. At a hefty $55,
however, there are many better alternatives, both smaller and cheaper. We applaud Thermaltake
for having the guts to put out such an atypical cooler, but the fundamentals need more work. The most successful heatsinks
have a soft-mounted fan with excellent acoustics, a relatively uniform
design, and a solid (better than stock) mounting system. Until Thermaltake gets all
three right, its products will continue to be second-class citizens in the kingdom of
silent computing.
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Thermaltake V1
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PROS
* Superb cooling with high airflow
* Good performance with low airflow
* Aesthetically pleasing
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CONS
* Loud stock fan
* Fan secured on only one side
* Push-pins inappropriate for weight?
* Expensive |
Our thanks to Thermaltake
for the V1 sample.
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