ThermalRight SI-97 - Socket A Heatsink
Type: Review
Price: $34.95 USD
Author: TekXoID
Date: 11/20/2004

Introduction:

Whether you are just getting in to computers, or are respectively known
a hardcore overclocker, proper processor cooling is important.
Stock cooling just doesn't cut it, hell, it never did, even at stock clocks for that matter.

Thankfully there are quite a few companies who have realized this and offer their own "aftermarket" cooling solutions.
One name in particular is respected by any weathered computer professional: ThermalRight.
They have been offering spectacular heatsinks since the days of the Early K7 Athlons.

Fast forward to now, with A64 heatsinks coming out right and left,
you would think ThermalRight finally abandoned the Socket A, right?

Think again, our guys at ThermalRight have done it again, providing a new approach
on CPU cooling with this new heatsink. They have proven themselves wrong, excessive
heatsink mass & weight are not necessary to effectively cool a hot chip.

I'm sure you're skeptical; I am too. Really, How on earth could this
skimpy little thing beat our beloved copper monsters of the past?

Read on and we will find out if ThermalRight is holding to it's
reputation with this latest progression in the Air-Cooling scene.


Contents:

• Two sets of fan clips. (92MM & 80MM)
• Two fan vibration dampener strips.
• One syringe of silicone thermal paste.
• One oversize ThermalRight case sticker.
• Detailed installation instructions.
• The heatsink.

Note: This heatsink is provided standalone and you WILL need to buy a fan additionally.


The Heatsinks:

-SI-97-
The ThermalRight SI-97 is partially based on their own new line of heatsinks for the K8, the XP series.

Concepts of this design include All-Aluminum construction, however, the SP line incorporates a nickel
plated copper base into this design. Heat removal on this heatsink is largely dependent on the four
heatpipes protruding from the base to the fins on the upper part of the heatsink for dissipation.

The mounting method is the well known "clip-mount" which utilizes the six
plastic lugs protruding from your ZIF Socket to secure the heatsink.

The heatpipes are near the edges of the 49 aluminum fins on the upper part of the heatsink, which effectively eliminates the previous issue of fan "dead spot" behind the motor, by placing the hot spots under the part of the fan that provides maximum airflow for heat dissipation. Smart move, ThermalRight.




The base is bare with no protective sticker, it is however relatively smooth.
I felt no nicks as I ran my fingernail across; it felt rather smooth, actually.


-SP-97-
With all-copper construction, solid bolt-through mounting, and proven capability of making friends other heatsinks cry and pop their heatpipes, the SP-97 is well known for it's top-of-the-line air cooling performance on the Socket A platform. Will she hold her ground?




The heatsink is solid copper, overall construction is solid, bottom finish
is smooth, with no nicks or manufacturing marks, just not quite reflective.

Note on both heatsinks: ThermalRight fan clips have always been deceivingly
flimsy looking, but as you can see below, they are anything but flimsy!


Image Courtesy of ThermalRight



Installation:
The included copper shim turned out to lower overall heatsink performance so I removed it, I
suggest you do the same unless you are extremely worried about damaging your core.
Temperatures dropped 3-5C without it rather than with it.

Other than that, Installation went smoothly and without mishap.

1.) Prep CPU die and heatsink base with alcohol.
2.) Lay a thin layer of thermal paste on both the die and base.
3.) Place the heatsink on top of the CPU, parallel to the cam box.
4.) Affix the clip over the base, clip the short side first then hook
the longer part of the clip, with a screwdriver, to the socket lugs.

For more information, see the very comprehensive included installation guide.



The Fans:

Top Motor 52CFM/29dB 92x25MM
Subjective noise comparison:
Unnoticeable in normal 25-30 dBa case environments.
This fan is quiet enough to sleep in the same room with.




Enermax 64CFM/33dB 92x25MM
Subjective noise comparison:
Air noise is audible but not to the point of annoyance
in normal 25-30 dBa case environments.




Unfortunately the Tornado was unavailable for review due to a lost shipment,
but it will be tested and added sometime next week thanks to Zennzzo!
Thanks to Zennz for getting a replacement out to me ASAP!

Tornado 119CFM/60dB 92x38MM
Subjective noise comparison:
Ever heard a 747 take off? That was nothing...
Seriously though, any weathered concert goer would not notice
this fan...over their Klipsch 500w speakers on max volume.

It's extremely loud, although, I find it tolerable.

Test Configuration:

Setup:
Athlon 2500+ Locked Barton @ 2.2GHz (1.65vCore), and 2.5GHz (3600+, 2.00vCore)
2x256MB Mushkin Level Two PC3500 - Sync, Dual-Channel
Abit NF7-S Revision 2.0
Ultra X-Connect 500w
ATi Radeon 9800XT




Environment & Testing Info:
Ambient is a constant 64F/17.7C - 65F/18.3C maintained by A/C. I'm in FL, we like our houses refrigerated. =]
Testing will be performed with the system in case to keep testing real-world.
A by-die temperature probe with digital readout was used for all readings.

Idle temperatures recorded after 30 minutes at desktop with no programs running at 3200+ and 3600+ speeds.
Load temperatures recorded after 30 minutes of Sandra CPU-BurnIn running at 3200+ and 3600+ speeds.
Multiple readings were taken, then averaged.

Note: SP-97 testing will have the fans offset to the left to substantially eliminate
the dead spot, my own testing proves better performance when fans are mounted this way.
Fan offsetting was not required or possible with SI-97 because of better heat pipe placement.


Cooling Performance:

Stockclocked:

Top Motor 52CFM/29dB 92x25MM

Idle SI-97: 28.9
Idle SP-97: 29.8

Load SI-97: 31.7
Load SP-97: 33.7

Enermax 64CFM/33dB 92x25MM

Idle SI-97: 28.1
Idle SP-97: 28.2

Load SI-97: 31.5
Load SP-97: 33.2

Tornado 119CFM/60dB 92x38MM
Idle SI-97: 26.3
Idle SP-97: 26.7

Load SI-97: 29.6
Load SP-97: 31.9

Overclocked:

Top Motor 52CFM/29dB 92x25MM
Idle SI-97: 34.5
Idle SP-97: 38.8

Load SI-97: 40.0
Load SP-97: 44.1

Enermax 64CFM/33dB 92x25MM
Idle SI-97: 34.1
Idle SP-97: 39.2

Load SI-97: 39.3
Load SP-97: 43.2

Tornado 119CFM/60dB 92x38MM
Idle SI-97: 32.5
Idle SP-97: 36.0

Load SI-97: 37.1
Load SP-97: 40.4

Conclusion:
Overall, this heatsink kicks some serious ass and does so with less weight and a more affordable price tag.
Toss a Tornado on it and you'll have temperatures on par or better than most watercooled systems.

Big thanks to Putwig here at PimpRig.com for providing the now discontinued SP-97 for comparison!
Last but not least, thanks Red02, Spectrum, flounder405, and Zennzzo for their contribution to this review.

I'd also like to thank Jab-Tech for providing the SI-97 making this review possible. You can pick one up for $34.95 .

The Tekked:

• Top-of-the-line air cooling performance.
• Lightweight and easy to install.
• Puts the heavier & expensive SP-97 to shame.

The Rekked:

• Base could have a more reflective finish.
• Included shim lowers performance.

Hope everyone found the review informative and/or enjoyable, it's my first.

Wow, and you were worried about a lack of performance from the SI-97.

Very good review, I like the graphs and it was easy to read and well writen. Keep them coming.


Edit: Also I can't wait to see the results with the tornado.

Yeah I review is nothing without graphs and this would have been nothing without me

Good review TekX killer temps too.

uhh, nice review tek. to bad i didnt get that one. that one was a little more informative.

well hot damn, considering my SLK-900, this could be a worthy purchase. That Top Motor fan could be too by the looks of it.

Good first review!

4c load temp reduction is nothing to sneeze at, especialy since it was compared to the current king of Athlon XP's, the SP-97

Sweet review TEK; very professional, my man. I've been earnestly awaiting this review since you first mentioned you were gonna do it, and this review was well worth the wait.
If i was still running a socket A, I'd snatch up that HS.

Quote: Originally Posted by _Sexy_Pants_ well hot damn, considering my SLK-900, this could be a worthy purchase. That Top Motor fan could be too by the looks of it.

Yeah, I didn't think much of it until I started pulling them from Chenbro cases I use in systems I sell.
If you are interested I can hook you up with one. Great air pressure too, especially for the low dB it creates.

Thanks for all the feedback guys, hopefully I can get a bit of outside traffic and really give back to PR.

Good review Tek, think this could kick the Zalman Brick.... I mean HSF off its Popularity totem?

~Bob

Good review, TekX. Gives me something to look forward to on the rig I'm building for my dad. Oh, he'll get the SLK-900A that I've currently got...the SI-97 is for me!

Rob

Great review, Tek. I'm always proud when one of our members steps up to contribute back to our site on their own dime. I'm impressed.

Quote: Originally Posted by khellandros66 Good review Tek, think this could kick the Zalman Brick.... I mean HSF off its Popularity totem? ~Bob

I would think so, given that Zalman is silence-oriented and the fact
that even the previous SP-97 has proved to have better performance.

Add a tornado to the SI-97 and...well, you'll see next week.

Rob, BA, thanks for the positive input, it means alot coming from you two.

Very nice job Tek ,thanks for taking the time out and writing that up.

Wow.
Tek, you did an amazing job on this!

Very detailed, layouted nicely and very thought through.


Rock on man.
Can't wait to see what you have cooking up next.

nice job Tek.

That 2nd "Tornado" better make it...

I am so glad I don't have to use those dam things...

What method did you wind up using to record the temps?

Great job TekX.

My main questions after reading the review:

1. how stable is it? Can you LAN party with it?

2. As Zen pointed out, how were temps acquired?

Like I said, great job.

I might add this review made it onto HardOCP's front page.

Quote: Originally Posted by ZENNZZO That 2nd "Tornado" better make it... I am so glad I don't have to use those dam things... What method did you wind up using to record the temps?

See below bro.

Quote: Originally Posted by putwig Great job TekX. My main questions after reading the review: 1. how stable is it? Can you LAN party with it? 2. As Zen pointed out, how were temps acquired? Like I said, great job.

1.) The clip has a notch in the middle to prevent sliding. This puppy isn't going anywhere.
1.) I've taken my system down to the shop and back a few times already for our
1.) late night lans and the heatsink hasn't moved nor has performance changed.

I never expected a clip to actually be a viable mounting system for
people on the go, but I am thoroughly convinced that it is very secure.

2.) I actually used two probes for redundancy, one Comp-U-Nurse probe by the die,
2.) and on the opposite side the the die, a Vantec Vortex HDD cooler probe, which
2.) also was very accurate and within 1C of the Comp-U-Nurse's readings at all times.