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ThermalTake Volcano 12 Heat Sink Review

  ThermalTake appears to be creating new cooling solutions faster and faster.  All of their products are increasingly more stylish and offer more performance with every model release.  Today, we look at the Volcano 12 Extreme.  There are two things that are noticeably different on this heat sink compared to other Volcano models.  The first one being the new high quality two ball bearing triple bladed fan.  ThermalTake states that this new fan design will improve the airflow and eliminate the turbulence caused by other multi-bladed fans.  The second noticeable change is the addition of 66 dense fins, this should allow greater cooling performance.

Here are the specifications from ThermalTake:

Specifications:

• Dimensions: 82 x 65.6 x 49 mm

• Construction: Copper / Aluminum shroud

• Observed Weight: 732 gms

• Fan Dimensions: 80 x 80 x 32 mm

• Fan Speed: 2000 ±10% RPM at 20°C ~ 5500 ±10% RPM at 55°C

• Max Air Flow 26.50 CFM at 20°C ~ 72.92 CFM at 55°C

• Noise: 21 dBA at 2000 RPM ~ 48 dBA at 5500 RPM

• Bearing Type: 2 Ball bearing

• Connector: 4 PIN

Lets have a look at what is included in the retail package:

Starting from the left, the Volcano 12 Extreme heat sink, the manual, two speed dial options (one 3 1/2" drive bay speed dial, and one PCI slot speed dial), thermal probe, thermal tape / paste, one jumper, and some screws for mounting the speed dial.

Previously with the Volcano 11+ Xaser Edition, the speed dial was in a 5 1/4" drive bay format and had a smaller knob, both of these features was an annoyance for me since I had four optical drives and no room to put this speed dial, and the speed was hard to adjust.  Now, with the new design I can put it right under my floppy drive and increase the speed easily because of the larger knob on the speed dial.

The new 3 1/2" drive bay speed dial

The PCI slot speed dial

Notice that the PCI slot speed dial stayed the same.  This design and quality is apparent in this speed dial.  With a gold plated slot cover and a metal knob, you can feel the quality.

This is the thermal probe that come with both the Volcano 11+ Xaser Edition and the Volcano 12 Extreme.  It is placed under the processor with some thermal tape holding it in place to detect the temperature.  Using this method, I noticed that the diode was very sensitive, which is good.  Running a CPU intensive program, you can hear the fan speed up and the slow down with the program is either idle or closed.  I recommend this option, if you want the fan to adjust automatically. 

  From this picture, you can see how dense and compact the 66 fins really are.  Using this method, users of this heat sink will see improved temperatures.  Not too many heat sinks utilize this dense fin technology.  ThermalTake can possibly be the leader when it comes to using these dense fins for their heat sinks.

One problem with ThermalTake's line up of heat sinks is the fact that they aren't as polished as other heat sinks from different manufacturers.  You can see that the reflection of the screwdriver tip is noticeably clearer and more defined when reflected off of the Cooler Master HCC-001 heat sink.  Although the performance difference might be minimal, the polishing should still be done especially when the Volcano 12 Extreme retails for around 30 dollars.

When placed next the Cooler Master HCC-001 heat pipe heat sink, the Volcano 12 Extreme can be seen as being wider due to the numerous fins on the heat sink.  We are going to see if this heat sink does better than the HCC-001 and the predecessor to the Volcano 12, the Volcano 11+.

Applying the included thermal paste to the processor die

For testing, I will be using the following system:

-AMD Duron (Applebred) 1.4GHz @ 2.25GHz@1.65v (203fsbx11)

-ThermalTake Volcano 12 Extreme

-Quantum Fireball 40gb ATA/133

-MSI K7N2G nForce 2 Motherboard

-GeForce 2 GTS

-512 MB PC-3200 Kingston Hyper-X

-350watt PSU / Generic Case

  During testing the fan on the Volcano 12 was loud at high RPM, but silent at the lowest RPM. A whirring sound can be heard when the rpm passes the 3200 mark.  The performance of this heat sink is good, beating out the Volcano 11+ by a couple of degrees at similar speeds.  The only thing I find annoying is that it is louder than the Volcano 11+ at high rpm.  The three blade design certainly outputs more air, but is louder than the seven bladed Volcano 11+ fan.

Overall, this heat sink and fan combination is a great performer.  With some excellent temperature results, this is a great heat sink to use, if you are overclocking your computer with air cooling.  ThermalTake states that this heat sink can be used with any AMD Duron/Athlon/Athlon XP processor up to 3400+ or about 2.3GHz.

Lets have a look at some Pros and Cons:

Pros:

-Great Performance

-Stylish 3 bladed fan

-66 copper cooling fins

-Lots of speed control options

Cons:

-Noisy

-30 dollars

Techaddicts Computer Reviews gives the ThermalTake Volcano 12 Extreme at 9 out of 10 for both its performance and innovation and the Techaddicts Innovation Award.

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