Thermolab Trinity Ultra-Quiet CPU Cooler

The shape and design of the CPU cooler has had many different forms over the past 10 years, but one design that has been used by virtually all CPU cooler manufacturers is the good old "Tower Cooler". The main reason why this design works so well is down to the introduction of heatpipes. The fact that heatpipes can transfer heat from one place to another allowed manufacturers to use space inside the PC that was previously not possible to use.

This leads us onto the new Trinity Ultra-Quiet CPU Cooler which is not manufactured by God or the Son or even the Holy Spirit, but by Thermolab. The reason they give it such a divine name is down to the fact that it has three main features which gives the cooler a great overall balance. These features include Performance, Noise Level and Compatibility.

Features

1. Four U-shaped heatpipe cooled heatsink
2. Core Contact Design
3. A Great All-rounder
4. Supplied with a very quiet 130mm PWM fan
5. Socket LGA1366, LGA1155/6, LGA775, AM3, AM2+, AM2 compatible

Performance
The performance of a tower heatsink depends on a number of factors. The size and layout of the heatsink along with the position of the heatpipes all need to be considered. The size of the heatsink is comparable to most other tower heatsinks on the market, with a total height of 150mm. This means there is ample room to stack a good number of fins to the staggered heatpipes. Staggered heatpipes prevent any "hot-spots" from being formed on the fins.

Another feature worth mentioning is located at the base of the cooler. There you'll find the heatpipes feature a Core Contact Design (CCD). This allows for the heatpipes to directly touch the top of the CPU to help increase the heat transfer.

Once the heatsinks have been designed, a suitable fan needs to be added into the mix. Thermolab have chosen to go with an odd sized fan of 130mm. Irrespective of the fan size, the primary goal of the fan is to cool the fins and with a maximum RPM of 1800 it is more than capable of cooling any CPU with which it is compatible, even overclocked ones. Please see the reviews on the right for more information on real world performance.

Another benefit of having a large fan is that it also cools down the components around the CPU socket, including the toasty VRMs!

Noise Levels
Having the words "Ultra-Quiet" in the name of a product must mean it is exactly that. During our testing we found that the cooler lives up to its name. The fan starts to spin at 600 RPM which produces a very low 16 dBA. This means you can only hear it if your ear is directly next to the fan. For the vast majority of users it is expected that this is the maximum noise level the cooler will ever make. But for those users who have hotter running CPUs (or even overclocked ones) the fan speed will increase depending on the temperature CPU, due to its fan being PWM controlled.

The fan is attached to the heatsink using rubber grommets which helps to reduce any vibrational noise that the fan may cause.

The final noise reduction feature worth a mention is that it is supplied with a PWM resistor (called SC3). This is designed to cap the maximum RPM of the fan to 1200 RPM. The fan can be used without the SC3 but that increases the fan speed to a maximum of 1800 RPM, but this is only needed if you require more performance, at the expense of noise.

Compatibility
Just like all recent CPU coolers the Trinity is compatible with virtually all desktop CPUs, including Intel's Sandy Bridge range of processors. Compatible socket types are as follows; Intel LGA1366, LGA1155/6, LGA775 and AMD AM3, AM2+, AM2.

Specifications
Dimensions - 150 x 136 x 85mm (H x W x L)
Weight - 735g
Material - Pure Copper and Pure Aluminium
Heat Pipes - Four 6mm diameter copper Heat Pipes (Sintered powder type)
Dissipation Area - 7050 cm sq
Thermal Grease - Thermal Conductivity 4.0W/mK, Specific Gravity 2.6
Operating Temperature - 0~150°C, Capacity : 2g
Fan Dimension - 130 x 130 x 25mm, 4-pin PWM type
Fan Bearing Type - Long Life Hypro Bearing
Fan Speed (PWM Duty) - 600 - 1800rpm ± 10% (0-100%) Performance Mode
                                         600 - 1200rpm ± 10% (0-100%) Silent Mode with SC3
Fan Noise Level - 16-32 dBA Performance Mode
                             16-24 dBA Silent Mode with SC3