FRONTPAGE Thermalright True Spirit 140 Heatsink Review

Coming up today is the second of three new heatsinks Thermalright has released recently. Last October, I reviewed the HR-02 Macho, which is a re-spin of the original HR-02 that is priced much lower than the original. Today we will be looking at a totally new design, the True Spirit 140. Like the Macho, the True Spirit 140 will have an MSRP of $39.95, but it's design philosophy is a bit different.

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I love that I can spot a muddockter heatsink review a mile off

Nice write-up.

Wow, that is amazing performance for the price.

I'm getting one ASAP... Nice review as usual.

I think this better than Noctua.. sad to say it won't fit in my case with 160mm clearance only. I'm looking for a a good Cpu Cooler that I will pair with my 2600k. Close in getting Noctua, but after reading this review, a little confuse now

Great review as always Mud..

Thanks guys. I was really impressed with this heatsink. The only problem is the little extra height going with a 140 mm size gives to it over something like a Venomous X or TRUE.

nice review, btw im impressed with its performance almost reaching the cooling performance of the H80 with just 2 or 5 degrees celcius difference and beating hyper 212 + to the floor..

Excellent review as usual Jim, thanks !

Also its quite surprising that GT which is just 120mm fan beats the TY-140 which is 140mm sized fan by a fair margin.

Looks like its a cheaper version of Archon, but with this performance, imo one of the best performance/value heatsink around if the the height and width is not a problem.

Jim, I'm interested with the mounting mechanism, from the pics it uses different type compared other popular TR mounting mechanism that has tension bolt like at TR's high end products like Archon, VX and SA, how do you rate this one particularly ?



Edit : For example this is Archon's mounting bracket & accesories

The mounting system isn't as nice as the Archon/Ven-X/SA mount, but it isn't bad by any means. You can tell it was developed for a cheaper price point, but it still does a very good job of mounting the heatsinks it is used with. This mounting system is also used with the Macho and the TR True Spirit 120 (the new rev TS sold under the TR name). They also thinned out the depth of the heatsink base for this new mounting system too, which saves TR a bit of copper in the base so they can lower costs. Another cost cutter with the new mount is that it uses the same hardware for mounting to both Intel and AMD systems. It doesn't need a separate crossbar mount or backplate for AMD. As to the look and feel of the mounting hardware, the original stuff is better quality. But the new mounting system works fine and gives a secure, stable mount on both Intel and AMD.

EDIT: As to the AP-15 fans beating the TY-140, that really doesn't surprise me too much. I think static pressure rules over the raw free air cfm advantage the TY-140 has and gives a little more efficient heat transfer, giving the AP-15 a slight edge

muddocktor said:

They also thinned out the depth of the heatsink base for this new mounting system too, which saves TR a bit of copper in the base so they can lower costs.

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Really curious how much they sliced out the base thickness ? Mind measure it for me please ?

Here, just measured my Archon, the base is about 15.45 mm thick.



A friend is asking me to buy an Archon for him since he saw I'm using it, since he overlocks just mildly, definitely I'm going to suggest him to buy this instead of Archon, though there is no direct comparison, looking at your numbers, imo Archon definitely is not worth the money now, especially for mild overclocker.

muddocktor said:

EDIT: As to the AP-15 fans beating the TY-140, that really doesn't surprise me too much. I think static pressure rules over the raw free air cfm advantage the TY-140 has and gives a little more efficient heat transfer, giving the AP-15 a slight edge

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Yep, I noticed this particular TR's design, like older TRUE or VX, it does scale really well on higher cfm or static pressure fans like those industrial type, if you have time, really eager to see the number when coupled with "the beast" of yours.

awesome review boss

I still can't picture the mounting. more pics of mounting please

looks like the vault system might work. can you confirm?

when is the release date?

It's roughly 10 mm thick, bing. I have a comparison picture of the base on the HR-02 Macho review, as compared to the older Cogage True Spirit, which has the same base dimensions as the TRUE/Ven-X, etc. And Hondacity, the pics in the Macho review might help you out as it uses the exact same mounting system as the TS 140.

I'm debating wether to get a used Antec Kuhler 620 with p/p Ap-15's or this cooler...Same price for both! Oh, what to do!?