Cooler Xtreme : Coolers
: Cpu Cooler : Thermaltake Volcano 6Cu and 6Cu+
Thermaltake Volcano 6Cu and 6Cu+
Another effort in the non-Orbular
cooler market from Thermaltake, and a more promising one than previous Volcanoes.
The 6Cu and 6Cu+ are nearly
identical. They both have aluminium heat sinks of conventional design, capped
by a 60mm full height fan with a plastic air-channelling lid over the small
fin area that the fan itself doesn't cover.
And they both also have this
copper insert in the base of the heat sink. Hence the "Cu" in their names.
The only difference between
the 6Cu and the 6Cu+, beside the white lettering on the fan surround, is
that the 6Cu+ comes with a 7000RPM fan.
Well, it's supposed to, anyway.
I got sample versions of both coolers looked precisely like the retail coolers,
but had the fans swapped. The one with "6Cu+" written on it had the medium
power fan, and the "6Cu" had the high power one.
Since the fan power is the only
real difference between the two, I've therefore just swapped over the test
results. When I say "6Cu" from now on, I mean the one with the medium power
fan; when I say "6Cu+" I mean the one with the high power fan.
The mounting clip on these coolers
is a stiff screwdriver-applied variety, which shouldn't present a problem
unless you try to use a screwdriver that doesn't properly fit the little
hook. If you do, you can look forward to skinned knuckles and a gouged motherboard,
as per usual.
Do the 6Cus perform well? Yes,
actually. The 6Cu scored a highly commendable 0.63°C/W, putting it not too
far behind a lot of serious overclockers' coolers. The more powerful fan
didn't do the 6Cu+ much good, though; it managed an only marginally better
0.61°C/W.
The retail versions of the coolers
don't seem to have the fan-mixup problem of my review coolers, so you should
be able to buy with confidence. The 6Cu+ is $USD24.40 from US PC Market
including delivery, and the plain 6Cu is $USD21.20 delivered. For the money,
they're excellent performers.
