Overclocker Cafe - Thermalright Ultra 90 Review

ThermalRight Ultra 90 LGA775 Cooler

Results

After getting everything situated, I began the test with the ThermalRight Ultra 90 with no fan. Although the cooler does provide adequate cooling without a fan, I wouldn't advise running this way. The average Idle temperature was 54c and the average load temperature was 70c.

After installing the fan, the performance was significantly better, as expected. The idle temp dropped to around 42c and averaged 56c under load. I re-installed the Thermaltake Blue Orb II afterwards to re-run the testing cycle on this as well. Although it did perform slightly better than the ThermalRight Ultra 90, it was not by a huge margin -- Around 39c idle and 54c under load.

Conclusion

With the nickel plated copper base and heatpipes, and 40 thin aluminum fins, the Ultra 90 is built to keep the heat away from your CPU, and that's just what it does. Although you can drop a few extra degrees off of your CPU using a more expensive cooler like the Thermaltake Blue Orb II, the ThermalRight Ultra 90 provides excellent cooling for the price. You do need to ensure you get the right type of mounting for your system, but the standard OEM clips provide a totally painless installation experience. The ease of installation of the Ultra 90 has not been surpassed by any other cooler that I've tested. Our thanks again go out to Sidewinder Computers for sponsoring this review. As a quick note - Sidewinder Computers has these units on sale now for $26! Here's a quick link to the sale.

Pros

Excellent fit and finish
Inexpensive
Very good cooling
Ease of installation

Cons

No fan included

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Pg 1 - Introduction
Pg 2 - Components
Pg 3 - Installation and Testing
Pg 4 - Results and Conclusion