This is the third Thermalright heatsink I have reviewed and I have one more sitting here waiting for judgement. The Thermalright SLK-800 which I reviewed not too long ago was the best heatsink that I have ever used. Not only did it have a lot of great features but it performed really well. I am excited to see if this heatsink will do as good if not better. This heatsink is made of all copper and uses a similar design to hold the fan on as the SLK-800. This heatsink has the ability to hold a 60-80mm fan and comes with a 70mm Y.S. Tech TMD fan (I did not recieve one). This SK-7 is cheaper than the SLK-800 so this will be better if your trying to save some money.
The Thermalright SK-7 comes in the same style of box that all of the Thermalright heatsinks have come in, a plain brown box. This box doesn’t have much to offer as far as eye candy but that doesn’t mean what is inside has to be the same. I opened up the box to see that the heatsink was wrapped in a plastic bag with the accessories in another plastic bag on the sides. I am really impressed with the quality of the packaging of this heatsink.
Looking at the top of the heatsink you can see the fins which are all soldered to the heatplate on the bottom of the heatsink. The Thermalright SK-7 is made totally out of copper and uses thin fins which is very popular with heatsink manufacturers these days. The base of the heatsink is protected with a peice of plastic which will keep it safe from being scratched, this is good because any scratches in the base of your heatsink will make the contact between it and the core of your CPU.
From the side of the SK-7 you can see that it is pretty tall and the finish on the copper is really nice. the clip that the SK-7 is the same kind as the AX-7 and SLK-800. The reason I like this clip is because it uses all 6 tabs on the socket which makes it really secure and makes it so that a lot of pressure is being applied equally over the core. The reason that I do not like this clip is because the little notch for the screwdriver is really bad. It is really small and there is almost no room to get a good hold on it making it so that the screwdriver will slip off really easy, especially during removal of the heatsink. I was hoping that Thermalright would modify the clip so that it would have a better slot for the screwdriver, unfortunately they did not.
The bottom corners of the SK-7 have a hole which are used for the clips to hold the fan onto the heatsink. I dont like these as much as the SLK-800 because gravity makes them fall out and isntallation of a fan is a little more tricky. I was glad to see that the clips were able to accomidate a huge screaming 80mm fans like the Delta and Vantec Tornado. We will be using 2 different size fans during testing, a quiet normal sized 80mm fan and a huge Delta, which is very loud. The SK-7 comes with the 4 clips for 70mm fans and 4 clips for 80mm fans, the reason that you get 4 of each is incase you break or lose one which is always good. You also get regular thermal compound, thermal pad, and a strip which can be basically used as a shim.
I peeled off the plastic from the heatplate of the heatsink, the finish on it is really good and will not require any lapping. There are also four dots on the bottom of the heatsink which are basically to make sure you have your heatsink seated well right on the sweet spot. Now lets get this thing on and see what it can do.
The clip mechanism for this heatsink is good and bad just like the Thermalright SLK-800, like the SLK-800 the slot for the screwdriver is much too small. The slot was so bad that my screwdriver slipped off a few times even with me being extremely careful and I ended hitting my motherboard a few times. I have installed a ton of heatsinks before and this is the first time I have ever had this happen really. This has always been a bad part of Thermalright heatsinks and hopefully soon this will be changed.
I will be using an EPoX 8K9A2+ which I will have a review of soon with my Athlon XP 1800+ (1.53GHz). I have talked to both EPoX and the maker of Motherboard Monitor and I am still unsure if the onboard diode of the XP is being read by the software so until I am positive I am not going to say that it is. I believe that heatsink testing is really relative, meaning that I think it’s more important how heatsinks compare rather than the actual temperature you get. It is important to get as low of a temperature as possible but I think comparison is the main key. I want to do a socket A heatsink roundup and will do so as soon as I have time. I will be using Arctic Silver 3 as the thermal compound because it is the best on the market. Idle temperatures were taken while idling in the BIOS and the load temperatures were achieved by using Prime95 which put the CPU up to 100%.
Test Bed:
- EPoX 8K9A2+ (review to come)
- 1800+ Athlon XP
- 60GB Seagate Barracuda IV HDD
- XtremeDDR PC3500 (review to come)
- 3DPower Geforce 3
- Cooler Master ATC-101-SX2
- Zalman 300w PSU
- Sound Blaster Live! Value
- ATi TV Wonder VE
- Plextor 40x12x40 CDRW
- pioneer 16x DVD
I tested with the Delta fan first and I was really impressed with the results, idle temperature was only 36 degrees! That’s the lowest I have ever seen with air cooling, the load temperature ended up being only 39 degrees Celsius, 3 degrees higher than idle. Let me tell you, if you are willing to put up with the noise from this fan your CPU is going to be a happy camper. Even though this Delta pushes 80 CFM it also spits out 50dB of noise which I am not willing to listen to.
I strapped on a Y.S. Tech fan model #FD1281253S-1N which is only 22.5 dB and pushes 27.9 CFM the results are not as impressive as they are with the Delta with an idle temperature of 49 degrees and a load temperature of 55 degrees but in my book I would rather a system that is quiet and a little hotter than one that is louder than a dust buster and cooler. Even still with this quiet fan the load temp was 55 degrees which isn’t really that bad, especially compared to some other heatsinks.
Conclusion
Besides the fact that the clip isn’t the best I do like this heatsink. It is a good heatsink which offers a lot as far as performance and being able to use different fans. The base of this heatsink was really nice and was protected well so that it would be safe. I have always liked Thermalright heatsinks and this SK-7 is no exception either. This heatsink is not as good as the Thermalright SLK-800 but it is not meant to be. This heatsink is for someone who wants a heatsink that will perform well but that also wants to save some money. The Thermalright SK-7 costs about $30 and includes a Y.S. Tech TMD fan while the Thermalright SLK-800 costs about $45 and does not include any fan. If you are looking for a good heatsink which will do a good job cooling your CPU and not taking a lot of money I would suggest this heatsink to you. Overall I am going to give this heatsink a 7.5/10, I would like to thank Thermalright for providing me with this heatsink to review.
Pros
- All copper design
- Ability to use a 60mm, 70mm, and 80mm fan
- Good performance
- Clip uses all six tabs
- Good price
Cons
- Poor slot for screwdriver on the clip