Low profile coolers are a very specific market and inorder to do well in this market you need experience to back up your claims. Thermaltake is one such company with a long track record of top notch product so when I first hear of a new orb cooler from them I knew that it should have no problem keeping up with confined cooling needs of a 2-3U rack mount server. The MeOrb from Thermaltake is the most recent in a line of great orb based coolers I loved the ruby and golden orb coolers and the MeOrb looks just as impressive as they did. I must say stepping up to the plate with a 47mm in depth cooler is a risky it is pretty hard to pack a large amount of cooling in such a small package. Lets get into this review together and see how well it performs:
Provided by: Thermaltake
Price: $49.99
Closer Look:
Specifications and Features:
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Low Profile – 47 mm ! – MeOrb provide more effective heat dissipation and cooling performance for your PC , 47mm height is special design for Low Profile pc case, great for HTPC (home theatre PC) and mini-ITX. |
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Radial sink with high performance Heat Pipe – Optimized radial heat sink offer highest surface area, with 2pcs Φ6mm high performance heat-pipe can efficiently dissipate heat from your motherboard and case |
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Super silent fan with PWM function – The 90mm fan provide cooling performance and extremely quite at a mere 16dBA, with special PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) function, the fan will automatic run according to CPU temperature. |
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Universal socket – MeOrb is compatible for socket Intel® LGA775 and AMD™ K8 939/940/AM2/AM2+ , with friendly design you just need simple steps to install. |
Compatibility | Intel® Core 2 Extreme (Socket LGA775) Intel® Core 2 Quad (Socket LGA775) Intel® Core 2 Duo (Socket LGA775) Intel® Pentium D (Socket LGA775) Intel® Pentium 4 (Socket LGA 775) Intel® Celeron D (Socket LGA775) Intel® Celeron (Socket LGA775) AMD® Phenom (Socket AM2+) AMD® Athlon 64 FX (Socket AM2/939) AMD® Athlon 64 X2 (Socket AM2/939) AMD® Athlon 64 (Socket AM2/939/754) AMD® Sempron (Socket AM2/754) |
Heatsink Dimension | 106.8 (L) x 94.6 (W) x 47 (H) mm 4.20 (L) x 3.72 (W) x 1.85 (H) in |
Heatsink Material | Aluminum Fins – Outer Circle: 92 fins – Inner Circle: 69 fins |
Heatpipe | Copper Pipe: Ø 6 mm x 2 |
Fan Dimension | Ø 92 x 20 mm |
Fan Speed | 800 ~ 1700 RPM |
Bearing Type | Sleeve |
Noise Level | 16 dBA |
Max. Air Flow | 38.9 CFM |
Max. Air Pressure | 1.25 mmH2O |
LED Fan | —- |
Power Connector | 4 Pins (PWM) |
Rated Voltage | 12 V |
Started Voltage | 7 V |
Rated Current | 0.25 A |
Power Input | 3.0 W |
MTBF | 50,000 Hours |
Weight | 258 g |
Testing Setup:
- CPU: Q6600
- Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3
- Memory: 2 x 2GB OCZ SLI Ready
- OS: Windows XP Home SP3
- Video Card: ATI Radeon EAH 4550
- Power Supply: 550 W PSU
- Case: Cooler Master Storm Scout
Testing:
For testing we will be maintaining an ambient temperature of 23 degrees Celsius. We will be running both an idle and load temperature for both stock clocks and overclocked to 3Ghz. I will be putting the Thermaltake MeOrb against the Thermaltake ISGC-100, and the Evercool Buffalo.
Temp |
Evercool Buffalo |
ISGC-100 |
MeOrb |
Idle |
18°C |
26°C |
25°C |
Load |
27°C |
41°C |
40C |
Idle Overclocked |
20°C |
27°C |
32°C |
Load Overclocked |
31°C |
42°C |
62° |
I didn`t expect the MeOrb to even allow me to OC my PC but in the end it performed very well considering that this cooler was never designed with the enthusiast in mind. Of course the Buffalo and the ISGC would defeat the MeOrb because of their purposes require a lot more cooling and allow for the space to achieve it. To be honest I wasn`t expecting the MeOrb to do anywhere near as well as it did. Let`s get into the final thoughts:
Conclusion:
Overall the MeOrb performed very well for such a compact cooler. I would have no issue trusting a workstation or a rack mount server to the cooling abilities of the MeOrb. I would say without issue that I would even consider using one of these is a mATX because it packs a ton of cooling in a compact package which makes it much easier to work inside a smaller case. It is even small enough to fit on some of the LGA775 ITX platforms in my opinion but hey I could be wrong.
Would I recommend this product? Yup, if you are looking for a fantastic very low profile cooler the Thermaltake MeOrb CPU Cooler is a great cooler to check out.
Pros:
- Size
- Decent Cooling for its Size
- Low Profile
- Copper Heatpiping
- PWM Fan
Cons:
- Little Pricey
