Coolermaster has a reputation in the world of hardware cooling. They are well known for their excellent heatsinks and water-cooling devices. I’ve used several of their products over the years and have rarely been disappointed. The old saying goes that you get what you pay for, and with Coolermaster, even if you feel you are buying the name, their reputation always holds up to expectations. So when I got the opportunity to review the Hyper TX3, I jumped on it. So here’s a little preview of what the TX3 claims to do, and then we’ll put it to the test to see what it’s really made of.
PRODUCT FEATURES:
- Flexible mountings.
- Maximum compatible CPU wattage: over 130W TDP.
- 3 x Direct Contact heat-pipes with aluminum fins to provide excellent heat dissipation.
- Option for adding 2nd fan to increase cooling performance.
- 92mm PWM fan with wide RPM range and anti-vibration rubber pads.
- Silent CPU cooler at only17 dBA (at minimum speed).
- Easy swappable fan by clips (clips for 2nd fan included).
HIGHTLIGHTS:
- Aluminum fins with 3 x Direct Contact heat pipes to provide outstanding heat dissipation
- Universal design: Compatible with Intel Socket LGA 775/1156
- Option for adding 2nd fan to increase cooling performance
- Universal design: Compatible with AMD Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM3
- Excellent airflow design with compact heat sink dimension (installed on Gladiator 600)
- New 92mm PWM fan with wide RPM range and anti-vibration rubber pads
COMPATIBILITY:
All Intel Socket 775/1156 CPU: Intel Core™ 2, Intel Pentium, Intel Celeron
All AMD Socket 954/939/940/AM2/AM3 CPU: AMD Phenom™ II, AMD Phenom™, AMD Athlon™, AMD Sempron™
SPECIFICATIONS:
Model: RR-910-HTX3-GP
Intel Socket: Intel Socket LGA775/1156,
AMD Socket: 754/939/940/AM2/AM3
Heat Sink Dimensions”: 90 x 51 x 139 mm
Heat Sink Material: Aluminum fin + 3 heatpipes
Heat Pipes: 3 pcs
Fan Dimension: 92 x 92 x 25 mm
Fan Speed: 800 – 2800 R.P.M. (PWM)
Fan Airflow: 15.7 – 54.8 CFM
Fan Air Pressure: 0.35 – 4.27 mm H2O
Fan Life Expectancy: 40,000 hours
Bearing Type: Long life sleeve bearing
Voltage Rating: 12 V
Noise Level: 17 – 35 dBA
Weight: 1.04 lbs; 470g
On the next page we look at the heatsink and install it…
Jeez, that’s a lot of info on one heatsink. They don’t really skimp on the details do they? Okay, so here’s my plan, I’m going to hook this thing up to my AMD setup and see what kind of heat dissipation we get. I’m going to run it under Idle load for half an hour as well as full load for half an hour. Here are the details on my test system:
- AMD Athlon X2 64 3800+ (Overclocked to 2.2Ghz)
- 4GB Samsung 6400 RAM (800Mhz)
- 1TB Seagate SATA HDD
- Corsair TX750 Power Supply (read our review)
- NZXT Beta Case (read our review)
Installation on my motherboard is fairly straight forward. Those push-pin clips, while not my favorite way of installing a CPU cooler, make things a little faster if you are in a hurry to get back to your everyday life. They were kind enough to throw in anything you would need to connect this to just about any Intel or AMD setup, along with extra wire clips for an additional fan. I don’t see the point in this unless you are going to run two fans on low speed for cooling and quiet. Running both fans on high would make your case sound like a Tigershark war jet. So everything is hooked up in a dirty hurry, mostly due to those push clips. I decided early on to go with Arctic Silver 5 thermal paste for all tests conducted here, fyi. Computer is back together, and everything looks good. Time to get to testing.
Aside from the Hyper TX3, I am also running heat tests on the Evercool Transformer 6 and a stock AMD cooler as well. After a few hours of testing, idling, and loading, here were the results of the trials:
CoolerMaster Hyper TX3 Performance Test
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During the idle conditions, where I simply let the PC sit while it ran, I got pretty close to the same temperature on all fronts. The only one that was a different was the Stock AMD, which was higher, of course. The load stage, where I ran Bioshock as well as couple of background programs for the duration of a half an hour, gave us a variety of temperatures. While the Hyper TX3 and Transformer 6 were within a mere 3 degrees of each other, the Stock AMD was shamefully at least 9 degrees higher than either of the other test subjects. Tsk, tsk, AMD. You guys can do better than that.
On the next page we render our verdict…
So in the end, Coolermaster once again restored my faith in their products. They won out over Evercool and especially the stock heatsink. And if that temperature difference alone isn’t enough to make you want to buy the TX3, there’s also the prices. The TX3 can be had for under $25 on most online storefronts (check latest prices). That’s half the cost of the Transformer 6, which it outperformed, and only 1/3 more than the stock cooler. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Coolermaster Hyper TX3. The price is right, and so are the temperatures.
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