nPower Hurricane

Date:: Thursday , October 15, 2009
Category:: Cooling
Manufacturers:: Various
Author:: Marc Adams
Editor:: Kyle Bennett

Intel Core i7 Cooler Review

New CPU coolers from Kingwin, Thermal Transtech International, and ZALMAN. While air cooling has gotten about as good as it can possibly get, all of these coolers bring something unique to the table. But do these units perform? We find out.

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Thermal Transtech is a company many of you may never have heard of. There isn’t much info outside of their marketing description. What is known is that this company doesn’t just produce heat sinks but have been doing research into a device they call the heat column. The heat column in the Hurricane is a massive 25mm pipe in the middle of the cooler. It is an interesting concept from an unknown company. Will it be enough to dethrone the current king? We’ll find out.

Package & Specs

The packaging from Thermal Transtech is reminiscent of the way Thermalright boxes their goods. No flash, graphics, no extra costs. Simple and to the point.

Dimensions: 107 (L) x 124 (W) x 156 (H) mm

Weight: 660g without fan

Material: Copper heat pipes with aluminum cooling fins

Heat Pipes: 2 x 8mm full-length heat pipes and 1 x 25mm heat pipe

Compatibility:

Intel LGA 1366
Intel LGA 1156
Intel LGA 775
AMD AM2/AM2+
AMD AM3

Fan:

Size: 120 x 25mm
Speed: 1000 ~ 2000 RPM
Noise Level: 12.0 ~ 29dB(A)
Max Air Flow: 43 ~ 49 CFM

Contents & Flatness

The contents of the Hurricane are many. There is so much hardware in the little baggies you have to wonder if much thought was given to its mounting system. With so many screws and bolts the chances of having poor contact increases exponentially.

The base of the Hurricane is flat with a textured bottom similar to the Noctua line of heat sinks.

Photos

Here are some shots of the Hurricane from different sides. Take note of the last two photos. Notice that on the bottom and the top (all the way through the fins) are these two extra holes that appear to have been reserved for extra heat pipes. Perhaps TTIC will release a future version of this cooler with better performance or perhaps internal testing revealed they were unnecessary. Either way it caught my attention.

Installation

Installing the Hurricane is up until now its biggest drawback. The sheer amount of hardware required to install this heat sink is enough to intimidate most novices out there. In the end it took a lot longer to install than all other heat sinks tested but did provide very stable support.