Thermalright XP-120 K8/P4 CPU Cooler Review
Admin - September 28, 2004
The heat sink came in a plain cardboard box with Thermalright's logo stamped on it. Inside the box, I found the heat sink protected by styrofoam cut to the shape of the heatsink. I inspected the heat sink carefully and found no shipping damage.
Packaged in the box, I also found the following:
- (2) Screws
- (2) Pieces of Rubber
- (2) Fan Clips
- Black Socket
- Instructions
- Thermal Paste
There is currently two versions of the XP-120, one that will fit both P4 and K8 CPU's and other that just fits P4's. The K8 package will come with a custom bracket that will allow you to use a K8 setup.
Despite the fact that the XP-120 is so massive, it actually doesn't weigh all that much since it's made mostly from aluminum. The XP-120 consists of 52 aluminum fins with total of 5 heat pipes, two on each side and one in the center. Thermalright has been successful with heatpipes on their other CPU coolers and I would expect the XP-120 to be no exception. For those of you that don't know what a heatpipe is or how it works, I'm going to attempt to explain it.
1. The pipe itself is actually a hollow tube that contains a special fluid. When the fluid becomes in contact with the CPU core, it heats up and that fluid turns in to a gas.
2. Once heated, the gas flows to the opposite side of the heatpipe (to the cooling area of the heatsink).
3. After the gas has been cooled by the heatsink/fan, the gas will again become a liquid and flow back to the hot side of the heatpipe (where the CPU core is).
1. The pipe itself is actually a hollow tube that contains a special fluid. When the fluid becomes in contact with the CPU core, it heats up and that fluid turns in to a gas.
2. Once heated, the gas flows to the opposite side of the heatpipe (to the cooling area of the heatsink).
3. After the gas has been cooled by the heatsink/fan, the gas will again become a liquid and flow back to the hot side of the heatpipe (where the CPU core is).
The bottom of the XP-120 was not lapped well like you would expect from a $50 heatsink.. I think Thermalright could have invested more time in to the lapping process, to achieve a smoother and shinier end result.
Instead of using a four bolt design like some K8 CPU's use, the XP-120 uses regular clips that we are all so familiar with. This could become a problem when installing the heatsink, since the heatsink is so large it may be difficult to clip it to your CPU socket. We will take a closer look at that during the installation process.
Instead of using a four bolt design like some K8 CPU's use, the XP-120 uses regular clips that we are all so familiar with. This could become a problem when installing the heatsink, since the heatsink is so large it may be difficult to clip it to your CPU socket. We will take a closer look at that during the installation process.
