Thermaltake Frio Avant-garde

Thermaltake has been in the aftermarket cooler business since 24-hour interval one, and over the years have developed numerous interesting products. Most recently they take stepped abroad from the eye catching designs placing more emphasis on performance.

Their most contempo functioning series is called "Frio." The original model, known simply as Frio, tipped the scales at a whopping 1042 grams which included a pair of 120mm fans. Those fans were capable of spinning at 2500 RPM where they could move 101.6 CFM, though doing and so would generate a rather loud 43 dBA.

The Frio was followed by the FrioOCK which was even heavier at 1093 grams. The extra weight was attributed to the larger 130mm fans which moved 121 CFM at just 2100 RPM.

At present nosotros take the Frio Avant-garde, which was released in conjunction with the new Intel LGA2011 platform. The cooler does support all mod AMD and Intel platforms out of the box withal. The Frio Advanced appears to be a more mainstream offering compared to its predecessors as information technology'south lighter and the fans move less air.

The Frio Advanced features only five copper heatpipes which connect to an aluminum base. However this design sees the 5 6mm copper heatpipes coming in direct contact with the CPU surface. This method is referred to as HDT (Heatpipe Direct Touch). I first tested a heatsink using this design dorsum in 2008 when looking at the then new OCZ Vendetta series.

Given the size of those heatsinks the results were impressive, so we have high hopes for the much larger Frio Advanced. This cooler measures 130.6mm long, 122mm broad and 159.2mm tall giving it a similar top to the Prolimatech Panther.

However the Frio Advanced is considerably wider, every bit it boasts not one fan but 2, and they are 130mm in diameter. The 130mm fans can move 88.77 CFM when spinning at full speed, though as they are PWM controllable they operate in the 800 - 2000 RPM range. These are not LED fans though they feature red blades as well every bit vibration-absorbent gaskets which are designed to subtract dissonance during functioning.

Similar the True Spirit 140, the Frio Advanced utilizes an all-in-ane backplate design, significant both AMD and Intel users will exist faced with well-nigh the same installation process. The Frio Avant-garde features the most comprehensive platform back up as information technology is fully compatible with the AMD AM2/AM2+/AM3 and Intel LGA775/1155/1156/1366/2011 platforms.