MaximumPC 2002 09

IN THE LAB^

REVIEWS OF THE LATEST HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE

90 |MAMAMAXIMXIMXIMXIMUUUUMMPPPCC| FEB 09 | http://www.maximumpc.com

A

t first glance, the Thermaltake SpinQ

looks like nothing so much as a stack

of bike gears with a fan mounted

in the center. And that’s basically what it

is—50 circular aluminum fins mounted

around an 80mm fan connected to a copper

exchanger. The cooler measures 4.8” wide

by 3.54” deep by 5.98” high—about the

same height and width as the Zalman

CNPS9700LED, but a bit deeper. The

SpinQ is, essentially, the high-rise coun-

terpart to the horizontal sprawl of its

stablemate, the Thermaltake DuOrb.

Unlike the DuOrb, with its two fans

and jarring red-and-blue LED color

scheme, the SpinQ keeps to one color,

a soothing blue, and a single fan. And

instead of the DuOrb’s retention system,

which is sturdy but requires you to

remove your motherboard, the SpinQ

uses the same plastic mounting system as

Intel’s stock coolers, so provided you don’t

already have a retention plate from your

previous cooler installed, all you have

to do is snap the SpinQ onto the moth-

erboard, tighten it, and go. Thermaltake

definitely wins points for the SpinQ’s ease

of installation.

The SpinQ comes with a controller knob

that lets you change the fan’s speed from

low, which is whisper-quiet, to its top speed,

which sounds like a small jet engine, and ev-

ery stop in between. It’s a handy feature—if

you don’t mind reaching into your case, that

is. It’s too bad that at its lowest setting the

SpinQ barely outperforms our stock cooler.

At its highest (and loudest), it knocked eight

degrees from our quad core’s 100 percent

burn temp—respectable, but not even close

to the DuOrb’s numbers, which cooled 15

degrees below stock at 100 percent burn.

If your tastes run more to silver and blue

than copper and red (and blue), the SpinQ

is a clear winner on the design front. But it

can’t match the performance of its sprawl-

ing, dual-fanned sibling.

Don’t get us wrong, the SpinQ is not a

bad cooler. It’s got looks, a fairly standard

formfactor (as opposed to the DuOrb’s ex-

panse), and ease of installation in its favor,

and its performance is nothing to scoff at.

But in a fair fight, at 100 percent CPU utiliza-

tion, it can’t match up with its sibling. Both

coolers retail for $80, so unless you’re really

cramped for horizontal space, you’re better

off with the DuOrb. – N A T H A N E D W A R D S

Thermaltake SpinQ

Is a skyscraper better than suburban sprawl?

+ -

VERDICT

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

8

Good looks, easy to

mount, respectable

cooling power.

Same price as the

DuOrb, without the

performance.

SPIN CITY

THERMALTAKE SPINQ

Thermaltake Thermaltake Thermaltake SPIN CLASS

SpinQ (low) SpinQ (high) DuOrb Stock Cooler

Idle (C) 37.5 35.5 32.75 38.8

100% Burn (C) 66.75 59.0 51.75 67.0

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

The Thermaltake

SpinQ is respectable

but not exceptional.