I bought one myself 2nd hand off OCAU for roughly the same price a few weeks ago…
Cheapest price on Staticice is $85 @ MSY.
TBH I'm not sure whether this unit cools THAT much better then a decent HSF…I managed to get the same temps with my old CM 212 Evo (although fan was on highest speed so it was much noisier)…
The kits are made by Asetek who are a pretty big name in the water cooling business. I wouldn't worry too much about the fact that they are ThermalTake branded.
Thermaltake is the homebrand of the PC world. They sponsor events and use design teams to obfuscate this fact.
That's a big call, I've used Thermaltake cases (some of the best I've ever worked with) and power supplies for years and I've never (nor the clients I've built for) had issues with these
I haven't used a Thermaltake cooler for a while, but when I have they have been fine (I haven't used their water coolers before though)
Where are you getting information that they are the "homebrand of the PC world" ?
I wouldn't say that. All major players make "budget level" fans, you get what you pay for. Thermaltake is certainly not a "premium" company but calling them home brand is an overstatement. The stock Intel coolers are the home brand HSF.
On this particular model, I was seriously considering it for my new i5 4670K setup but upon reviews found most high end air coolers could match it's performance. In the end, I actually stuck with my 6 year old Xigmatek copper cooler which is still doing a great job on this CPU and has worked since my old Core2 Duo E6850!
I have bought plenty of Thermaltake gear over the years, and have never been disappointed with it or found the quality to be poor. No one cries louder or longer than me if i am not happy with what i buy.
I've heard that high end air > low end water cooling, so if you're after outright performance it might be better sticking with the Megahalems or Noctua products (but of course don't take my word for it - read reviews!)
Pretty much this.
I went with a D-14 instead of the H100 when shopping for my 3570k. It happily does 80c @ 4.8ghz, which I'm sure the high end dual rad coolers will do… albeit with a higher price tag and noise levels.
All reviews points to air cooler are the best value unless you spend 140 bucks for a double cooler (Corsair hydro 100 series) or Thelmatake extreme water cooling 2.0 then there will not be any difference.
Excuse my ignorance, but would someone explain please under what circumstances or situations would these be required?
If you overclock you CPU…or just want a quieter solution? Though HSF can do either jobs just as well with minor tradeoffs (noise vs temps)
It would eliminate a case fan because the fan segment would mount on the rear interior of the case, pushing air out the back, cooling the CPU in the process. So essentially doing the job of 2 fans, CPU fan and rear case fan.
All the air cooling fanbois should note that a half decent water cooling solution doesn't put 800 grams of weight on the cpu socket and doesn't block the RAM sockets or make it hard to move the video card…
I'm running a Corsair water cooling setup, one of the out-of-the-box jobs…
The reason I went that way is that it isn't monstrously large - particularly right on top of the CPU.
Generally water cooling is better than air cooling until you get up to peak loads, then water cooling and air performance come together…
Give some credit to the wafers. I've had a D-14 strapped on mine for a good year now which i use for lanning, so its prone to frequent bumps and the occasional idiot tilting my rig to peek inside.
fanbois!?!?
is this the new model they touted earlier this year?
Back upto $94?
wouldn't buy another thermal take product if they where on special for half price…
havent had very good experiences with breakdowns on them…specially as far as water is concerned… had about 3 pumps die in under a few years, mostly warantee jobs…
think i'll stick to good air next time.
not to say this isnt a good price if thats what you want.