Overclockers

Today, Thermalright announced the Archon heatsink, a new tower CPU cooler. The cooler is thinner than standard tower heatsinks, which Thermalright claims will eliminate compatibility issues with large memory heatspreaders. Boasting compatibility with Intel’s 1156 and 1366 sockets, the Archon also comes with the same AMD bracket system as the Venomous X. Also included is a 140mm TY-140 fan, but users can mount their own 120 or 140mm fan.

Archon with TY-140 Fan (Courtesy Thermalright)

Archon Without Fan (Courtesy Thermalright)

Specifications (Courtesy Thermalright)

Heatsink Specifications:

• Dimension: Length 155mm x Width 53mm x Height 170mm
• Weight: 806g (excluding fan and mounting brackets)
• Heatpipe: 6mm heatpipe*6 units
• Copper Base: C1100 Pure copper nickel plated with mirror shine

Archon Tower Heatsink (Courtesy Thermalright)

Archon Mirror Finish (Courtesy Thermalright)

Fan Specification:

• Dimension: L160mm x H140mm x W26.5mm
• Weight: 140g
• Fan speed: 900~1300RPM (PWM controlled)
• Fan noise: 19~21dBA
• Airflow: 56~73CFM
• Connector: 4 Pin (PWM Fan connector)

Estimated Performance

This cooler is similar in shape and design to the Venomous X, which is important because it gives a baseline indication of how the Archon will perform. Thermalright claims that despite its slimmer profile, the Archon has 1.6x more surface area than the Venomous X. There is only a 6% weight difference between the Venomous X (755 g) and Archon (806 g), which are both made of the same material. With that in mind, it is safe to assume that performance can be approximated with relative accuracy by comparing the volume of both coolers:

With 8% more volume than the Venomous X, the new Archon is a pretty safe bet. Taking a look at muddocktor’s comprehensive Premium Heatsink Shootout, it appears as though the Archon (depending on fan setup of course) will be able to keep up with some of the best air coolers out there.

Thermalright has not released expected retail pricing or an estimated ship date. Once we have a review sample in hand, we should be able to provide an accurate assessment of this cooler’s performance.

-mdcomp

Tags: archon, heatsink, Thermalright

24 Comments:

xoke

10-20-10 02:24 PM

Is that the 140mm mounted in the pictures?! Holy cow that is a beast. I'm looking forward to this review, I have to get an air cooler for my 1366 someday.

Nebulous

10-20-10 02:30 PM

I was about to say the same thing! I've been H20-ed for so long, I wouldn't know what air cooler to get for my setup, lol

Bobnova

10-20-10 02:45 PM

See where the heatpipes are? That spreads the heat out over the entire aluminum plates, unlike the TRUE and Megahalems that only heat one end.

This thing should be a monster.

EDIT:
I would not assume the performance will be the same, personally.

muddocktor

10-20-10 03:11 PM

I am earger to test this one out myself. I want to see if spreading the heatpipes out like that will bring better efficiency to high end air. From what I've seen the last 3-4 years, high end air has hit a bit of an efficiency impasse, with only slightly better performance being realized with designs newer than the original TRUE model. I have a feeling though that this one will be another winner. Especially since Thermalright has addressed the base finish quality control problems they were having until a year or 2 ago.

bing

10-20-10 04:01 PM

Really interesting how they layout the pipes on making the contact with the fins, it looks this new model has different method than the conventional way that all pipes are having contact/soldered with all fins.

Watch at the gaps pointed by those red arrows, maybe those pipes are making contact at the upper fins, while the blue one is the one that is making contact with the bottom fins.

Really curious to see how this perform against current top dog like Silver Arrow or Noctua D14.

87297

xoke

10-20-10 04:23 PM

I didn't even notice that! Good eyes, that makes good sense too, spread the heat dissipation around. I don't know how many times the top of an air cooler is ice cold and the bottom is pretty warm. I cannot wait for the muddoc to get a hold of this thing!

bing

10-20-10 04:55 PM

Exactly, spreading the dissipation points, just guessing, maybe they've discovered the optimal dissipation number of pipes for each fin.

Another things to concern about, this HS is the tallest and widest (length) among other TR high end heatsinks, with this height, this might create problem with tight mid tower size case, especially with a thick side fan mounted.

Comparison :

Archon : Length 155mm x Width 53mm x Height 170mm

Venomous X : Length 127mm x Width 63mm x Height 160mm

Silver Arrow : Length 147mm x Width 123mm x Height 160mm


87299

m0r7if3r

10-20-10 05:14 PM

Oh wow...I hadn't noticed it was taller, that could create issues for people.

MattNo5ss

10-20-10 05:26 PM

I noticed this cooler on their website yesterday. A couple things I noticed:

- It's thinner than other tower coolers, like the Venomous X, by 10mm. Did Thermalright supply the volume numbers? They say you can use either 140 mm or 120 mm fans, but would a 120 mm cover all of the fins? If not, then the dissipation area of the Archon when using a 120 mm fan would be smaller.

- The spreading of heatpipes seems like a good idea. One issue I see that may arise is how high-performance fans with huge hubs work with the Archon. Personally, I like the majority of the heat being on the ends of the fins so my San Ace fans can dissapate all of it. The heat from the inner heatpipes may not get dissipated well unless using a fan with a small hub.

xoke

10-20-10 05:27 PM

Until they get to about 5 feet tall ceiling fan clearance should not be an issue.

Just kidding...very true...of course the target market for this thing will not be SFF I'd imagine.

I.M.O.G.

10-20-10 09:42 PM

Bing and MattNo5ss, good points, and some of that is covered on their product page if you dig for it. From the support tab here:
http://www.thermalright.com/products...=172&cat_id=27

jcw122

10-27-10 12:21 AM

Heatpipes?! A revolutionary design!

MattNo5ss

10-27-10 12:38 AM

I just realized that I could test my quoted point above with the Shaman, if interested.

bing

10-29-10 07:28 PM

Straight from our local TR distributor, they informed that Thermalright themself is claiming that this Archon cooling performance beats their own big sized twin towers Silver Arrow at the same fan configuration.

Judging from the information source and also the claim by comparing their own products, looks like TR is preparing to launch a new champion.






.

Khemikal

10-29-10 07:56 PM

I had always wondered who the genius was that decided to line up the heat pipes. That design narrows down the pipes getting direct airflow to just the ones in the front. By spreading them out like this you get more pipes getting better, more direct, airflow.

m0r7if3r

10-29-10 08:47 PM

the pipes are fairly high restriction though, and not much heat will be lost over so little a surface area...what's been done here is spread out the heatload in the total sink, so the top gets as much heat as the bottom because it has its own set of pipes...or that's what I could see from the pics.

Bobnova

10-29-10 08:56 PM

It's cheaper to make six identical shapes and press them on then it is to make six different shapes and press them on. Simple as that, i'd bet.

bing

11-21-10 06:07 PM

Found for sale at this online shop -> HERE $82.95 with the condition "Orderable, Stock Expected to Arrive Soon"

.

MattNo5ss

11-21-10 08:37 PM

What!? This thing better be a beast at that price... or either it's being marked up for pre-orders...

bing

11-24-10 02:50 PM

Lo & behold.... look what is on my table !

88394

Will post pics of unboxing soon.

xoke

11-24-10 02:55 PM

Want one! Want one!

MattNo5ss

11-24-10 04:48 PM

Nice! If you want to do a review for the site, let me know

m0r7if3r

11-24-10 05:46 PM

any chance we could get a shot next to another heatsink (True, VX, something along those lines)?

bing

11-24-10 05:56 PM

Yep, thats the plan , otherwise the unboxing shots will be bare & tasteless isn't it ?

Side by side shots with D14 and Megahalems, currently don't have True or VX with me now, they're both loaned to friends, so stay tune.

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