MaximumPC 2008 11

IN THE LAB^

HANDS ON WITH THE LATEST HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE

I

nstalling Thermalright’s beefy IFX-14

CPU cooler is incredibly complex.

Assembling the troublesome amalgam of

parts, pieces, screws, and brackets made us

long for the snap-lock mechanism of

standard Intel coolers. That said, the IFX-14

delivers massive cooling when it’s up and

running. But there’s a caveat: It doesn’t

include any fans. Thus, its performance

depends on the type of fan you attach to one

or two sides of the device. Our benchmarks

are based on the use of two generic 12cm

fans we pulled from a box in the Lab.

Even getting two fans to work with the

IFX-14 can be troublesome. This cooler’s

immense size—two towers of heatsink

fi ns connected to four 0.8cm heat pipes—

caused the device to push right against

our RAM, making it diffi cult to attach the

fan-mounting clips. The IFX-14 also nudged

up against the north bridge on our EVGA

680i motherboard. This forced us to rest a

southern cooling fan in the split between

the cooler’s heat pipes. It’s hardly an ideal

location, as we were unable to secure the

fan to either of the cooler’s fi ns.

The IFX-14’s cooling

performance is better than

our champion’s, Thermal-

take’s DuOrb, by a few de-

grees in both our idle and

burn tests. But the cooler’s

usability issues make

us long to trade in these

degrees for a more painless installation pro-

cess—or one that doesn’t constrain our case

options. For example, if you incorporate the

IFX-14’s optional back-side heat-pipe cooler

into your installation, you won’t be able to

use a top-mounted power supply. There’s

simply not enough room. Likewise, we made

the mistake of screwing the cooler into place

before testing how its size would aff ect our

motherboard installation. The cooler blocked

two standoff screws and taxed our ability to

connect power supply cables.

Bigger is oft en better in the world of

CPU cooling, but the IFX-14 pushes the

limit too far. – D A V? D M U R P H Y

Thermalright IFX-14

This skyscraper includes a time-consuming installation

You’ll want to plan out the cooler’s

(and your motherboard’s) installation

before you actually attach the IFX-14,

as it can block a good chunk of your

motherboard’s cabling routes and

standoff holes.

88 | MAXIMUMPC | NOV 08 | http://www.maximumpc.com

Best scores are bolded. Idle temperatures were measured after an hour of inactivity; load temperatures were measured after an hour’s worth of CPU Burn-In (four instances). Test system consists of a stock-

clock Q6700 processor on an EVGA 680i motherboard.

BENCHMARKS

IFX-14(no fans)^ IFX-14 (two fans) Thermaltake DuOrb StockCooler

Idle (C) 51.3 29.8 31.0 41.8

100% Burn (C) 96.0 44.0 49.5 69.3

VERDICT

$80, http://www.thermalright.com

8

Wonderful cooling

performance; unique

rear cooler for the

motherboard.

Gigantic, difficult

to install, no fans

included.

COLOSSUS

THERMALRIGHT IFX-14

THE BLOB