Thermaltake DuOrb Extreme VGA Cooler

[Golfert]

The summer is always a challenging test for most desktop systems to high end: a top performance range is in fact very often a high amount of heat to dissipate. The DuOrb Extreme is really the product the original DuOrb should have been, a highly compatible, high performance, VGA cooler that can compete with the industry’s best. It might have taken 18 months, but Thermaltake has listened to the demands. Not only does the DuOrb Extreme now support the latest ATI and Nvidia graphics cards, but it also includes the all important fan speed controller.

Thermaltake is a company that is constantly looking to improve on their designs and in the past we have seen several revisions of a single product come to light. A perfect example would be the BigTyp or Big Typhoon, which has gone through countless revisions which improve upon price and features. Thermaltake DuOrb Extreme is compatible with some of the latest VGA products on the market from both AMD/ATI and NVIDIA. What is so cool about it? It has two 80mm fans. It’s made of copper. It has nice blue LEDS. It provides support for many current graphic cards, and of course, it’s shiny!!

Following are the Features of an DuOrb Extreme

• Universal Design for Nvidia and ATI cards
• Copper base and copper fins
• Two long length heatpipe structure
• Attached VGA memory and VRM heatsinks
• Scurve fan blade design and 6-LED lights.
• Dual-pipe and heatsink design
• Dual 80mm silent fan.

[Golfert]

one of the components in recent years has been one of the most dizzying growth performance. This video card are not only for small applications but also have top performance, but also consumption and heat production firm; that is why the vast majority of video cards currently developed is characterized by the presence of a dual slot heatsink to ensure maintaining a constant temperature.

DuOrb Extreme looks like a heatsink developed specifically for video cards, high-end, with operating temperatures above the average. Adopt a cooling solution that differs from the standard means basically two things: wanting to secure his card for greater efficiency during the dissipation and have better margins when operating at frequencies outside the specifications. Here is the list of video cards that the Thermaltake DuOrb heatsink is able to support:

Furthermore, without the ability to adjust the fan speed in any way, we found the DuOrb to be a little too loud. Therefore it came as little surprise to learn that Thermaltake is taking a second pass at the DuOrb VGA cooler with the new “DuOrb Extreme”, codename CLG0119. This new and improved version is bigger and quieter, as it attempts to improve on the flaws of the original.

[Golfert]

The DuOrb Extreme was announced in March at CeBIT 2009 which was held in Hanover, Germany. Now some 4 months later we have a sample, though the product does not appear to have gone to market just yet so pricing is a little unclear.

As the simple installation procedure may have some way unclear, the consequence of little documentation and very intricate. First you must identify your video card and find the reference in the table in the instructions: According to the model will vary the adapters and screws to be used, the procedure remains unchanged.

The adapters are used to adjust the mounting of the unit to the video card Thermaltake: inside the packaging will have two pairs that fit the majority of video cards currently marketed.

The proper assembly to be easily identifiable due to the presence of grooves that let you take the screws at a fixed time.

[Golfert]

Specification:
Dimension: (L) 180.5mm x (W) 98.5mm x (H) 30mm
Heatsink Material: Copper base & Copper Fin
Heatpipe: 6mm x 2pcs
Fan Dimension: 80mm x 15mm x 2pcs
Rated Voltage: 12V
Started Voltage: 7V
Max. Air Flow: 23.8 CFM
Max. Air Pressure: 2.9 mmH2O
Fan Speed: 2500 RPM
Life Expectation: 50,000 hours
Connector: Four pin
Weight: 324g

Packaging
The DuOrb ships in a standard plastic cover like many of Thermaltake’s cooling products. There is nothing interesting except for the mammoth VGA cooler inside the packaging. Included in the package are the memory heatsinks, mounting clips and stuff to help us mount this cooler on any of the supported VGA cards listed above.

[Golfert]

Conclusion:
The solution offered by Thermaltake has been able to provide higher efficiency than the standard solutions that ATI and NVIDIA set as references for their partners. Tests have revealed operating temperatures well below those normally recorded with the standard cooling solution, but not all.

The price of Thermaltake for this solution, inclusive of VAT, is approximately 55 euro: given the cost that the highly competitive video cards have attained for some 'time now, going to invest a similar amount for a heatsink to third party appears to make sense only for those who want to have fun with the installation and go to manually change the speed of the cooling fans or earn a degree to go further with overclocking.