Customer Reviews

Thermaltake TR2 M12 A4012 CPU Cooler for Intel Socket 478

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Bottom line: does a good job cooling the CPU, but a bit
noisy.

My testbed was a Supermicro P4SCE w/P4 Prescott overclocked
to 3.5GHz w/hyperthreading enabled.

I salvaged this motherboard from an old rack mount server
and installed in a full height tower desktop running Linux.
CPU junction temps given are for idle and about 20 minutes
into a full Linux build; they're also rounded to nearest
5 degC. Thermal throttling was set to Supermicro default of
75 degC. Tower has 2 120mm fans, one blowing onto motherboard,
one blowing out case back; plus 2 80mm power supply fans, one
drawing air off motherboard, one blowing out case back -- plenty
of air flow over motherboard.

First configuration was w/OEM low profile heatsink w/high
cubic ft/min. blower w/crappy 1.5g white thermal grease. I
could not run this configuration overclocked, clock = 3GHz.
Idle: 55 degC
Build: >75 degC (never managed to complete a full build;
board crashed)

Second configuration was w/OEM low profile heatsink but
w/CoolerMaster ThermalFusion 400 grease (3.5g, 2.89 thermal
conductivity -- one of the best non-electrically conductive,
non-curing greases). This config was overclocked to 3.5GHz.
Idle: 45 degC
Build: >75 degC (never managed to complete a full build;
board crashed)

Third configuration was w/OEM heatsink w/ThermalFusion
grease, but w/2 60 cubic ft/min. 1 in. fans placed
6 in. above CPU blowing onto CPU. Overclocked.
Idle: 35 degC
Build: 70 degC


Fourth configuration was w/Thermaltake TR2 M12 A4012 CPU
Cooler instead of OEM heatsink w/ThermalFusion grease.
Again overclocked.
Idle: 30 degC
Build: 55 degC

The fourth configuration was about half as loud (-6dB) as
the third configuration, but still a bit too noisy for my
tastes. Thermaltake could probably lower their noise level
by at least half (>6dB) if they would use a more efficient
fan blade design.

Installation was difficult in cramped case but not
excessively so (the Northbridge heat sink was an order of
magnitude more difficult than this one). My installation
gotcha list:
- make sure heat sink retainer is flush with motherboard
- make sure to use good thermal conductivity thermal grease
- remember to remove white crappy thermal grease pre-applied
by manufacturer before applying good stuff
- make sure that clips have attached properly

All in all I'm happy with my purchase.

The TR2 (A4012-02) for 3.6G ht performs nice and quiet no motor sounds. There is air blowing sounds that is kind of unavoidable especially for me. I have an older system that runs a 500w psu for the quadro 4 on a raid 0 in a larger case nice and roomy. I run about 4 dual bearing fans that is very quiet but they have airflow sounds. If you want to get away from the fans blowing noise, you should install liquid cooling systems especially for the cpu, which makes the most noise. overall this setup is truly quiet of any mechanical noises and SPECIAL NOTE: It has thermal paste on it so don't touch it. otherwise this item does cool your system

INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS: this should eliminate install difficulties.
you must lay down the computer hold the heatsink in place with one hand and apply the brackets one by one with the other, top first bottom with handle second, don't be afraid of tention-just push down in the middle of the bracket not the handle part, you will use the handle with an available finger to move in place to lock heatsink in place, do the same for the other side without releasing tension to the fan heatsink and it will go in easy.

I bought this because I thought the original Intel CPU fan was too noisy. This one is just as bad if not worse so it was a waste of money for me. I didn't have any of the problems installing it that other reviewers seemed to have.

I was tired of hearing the processor fan when trying to sleep. After replacing the OEM fan with this one, the computer became almost whisper quiet, and the processor runs a few degrees lower than before. I would recommend purchasing this fan to anyone looking for a replacement.

This cooler is tricky to install in a crowded mini-tower case. The clips take
a bit of force to get them to snap into place. But once it is installed it
runs quietly.

I have been the owner of a high-end Socket 478 processor since 2004. Over the years I have had many different cooler solutions in attempt to cool an otherwise stove-top The performance of this CPU Cooler is superior in terms of thermal heat reduction and silent fan operation. I now install these Socket 478 coolers in all of my customer's Socket 478 systems before deploying them back into a client's business operation. For the price, this is the "silver bullet" to those hot Prescott wattage leaching CPU's.

I love these all copper cpu fans, they literally blow away the competition!
This one arived in great condition, and they provide superb cooling which helps the pc's run at like-new performance again.

Overall this "all copper" Thermaltake fan-cooler cooled down my Mobo in an order of magnitude of about 10 Celsius, and my Prescott CPU about 7 Celsius. I was expecting more, but the heat-sink paste used was far from good. I expect to improve the performance with a better heat-sink compound. And don't forget that copper is far superior to aluminum as a heat transfer material. Recommended for Prescott P4 CPU users.

Used this Thermaltake CPU cooler to replace my original stock CPU cooler that was getting loud on my 7 year old HP XP PC with 3.06GHz Pentium 4 HT. I do not hear it running at all but my temp is kept nice and low.
The retainer for this unit is a little different that my stock one but nothing had to be changed. The new retainer used the motherboard mount perfectly.

I installed the TR2-M12 today in order to replace my older Thermaltake Volcano 11+ Xaser Edition A1725. My old Volcano was extremely loud and was not cooling properly. My processor zone was idling at around 80 degrees Celsius, which is dangerously hot. Upon installation, the temperature is back down to around 40 degrees Celsius. I would recommend this product to anyone that is having heat issues. More specifically, anyone that is using an older processor fan/heatsink for a socket 478 processor may want to purchase this product in order to extend the life of their processor. As for the volume, my Playstation 3 is much louder than the fan on this heatsink. I feel like the TR2-M12 is amazingly quiet for the amount of temperature reduction that this product has accomplished. I was expecting that this fan would be much louder than it actually is. It was well worth the $20 spent because I would have paid more for this product while knowing that I will sleep soundly tonight without the noise of the old Volcano processor fan. Just for anyone who would care to know, the fan is now being used for a Pentium 4 Prescott 3.0GHz.