ThermalRight Ultra 90 AMD Cooler

Manufacturer: ThermalRight
Supplied by: Sidewinder Computers
Street Price: $26

by Dean Barker (6/11/06)

 

Introduction

ThermalRight figured they were on to something after the release of their HR style chipset cooler.  So much so, that they expanded this winning design into a full on processor heatsink.  This cooler is available in two versions now, the Ultra 90 and the recently released Ultra 120.  The units run with a 90 and 120mm fan respectively.  Today, thanks to Sidewinder Computers we have an opportunity to look at the Ultra 90 model for the AMD Athlon 64 (K8).  As we always do, let's start off with the specs.

Specifications

• Application: AMD K8

• Observed dimensions: 145 x 50 x 100mm

• Observed Weight: 428gms

• Fan: Not included

• Construction: Aluminum with nickel plated copper base

• Triple heatpipes

What you get

ThermalRight sticks with their brown paper bag notion of packaging, meaning the box itself is plain brown with black product identification on the sides.  I think this shows they have confidence in what's inside if you ask me.  What was inside was the ThermalRight Ultra 90 cooler for AMD's K8, fan clips for an optional fan, K8 mounting bracket, a small syringe of silver thermal paste, instruction booklet and a large ThermalRight sticker. 

Tower of thin finned power

The ThermalRight Ultra 90 is a rather large cooler as you can see below.  While it is reasonably thin, it remains one of the tallest coolers I've seen with the Limbo bar set at 145mm.  Like most high end coolers these days, the Ultra 90 relies on a high count of thin aluminum fins and heatpipes.

Here's a frontal shot of the fins and how ThermalRight's design maximizes surface area while keeping resistance to air circulating through to a minimum.  The boxing kangaroo is by itself in the last pic because after I laid in the pics here, I realized the kangaroo behind the cooler pic appeared as if it were something else.

     

NEXT