Thermaltake wowed us when they first introduced their original Orbs. The Golden Orbs (aka Gorb) were decent performers, and looked damn pretty sitting on our Pentium 3s. They weren't bad for overclocking, and given the amount of noise (not much), it was a heck of a lot better than using the Intel stock HSF. A Quake clanmate of mine was able to overclock her Pentium 3 into the mid 800s (If I remember correctly, she had a PIII 650E), and the amount of heat created was well controlled by the Gorbs.
Then came the Thunderbirds and Durons, and the Orbs began to get a reputation of being "core-crackers". Another clanmate and his buddy just did this recently in fact. It seems that the Orbs weren't compliant with AMD's specifications. This wasn't a surprise since the Golden Orb was out long before the AMD Thunderbirds. Thermaltake went back to the drawing table and released products such as the . None of the products sufficiently cooled the hot running Thunderbird CPUs. Thermaltake began to lose ground to other high performance coolers, and it was obvious that something needed to be "revolutionary". So, instead of an "Orb", they created a "Volcano". Despite the scary name, the Volcano series were nothing more than standard square heatsinks. Performance was average, but a lot better than their Orbs, especially when slapping a Delta on it. This wasn't going to do, and Thermaltake went back to the basics. The result, a new Orb, dubbed the Dragon.
FYI: There are actually 3 different Dragon Orbs on the market. The is an all aluminum design, the is a twin radial design, and the (unit reviewed here) has a copper base.
Thermaltake did 3 major design changes from their previous orbs. First, they added a copper insert. Sure, they did this with the Mini Copper Orb, but there is a lot of copper this time. Next, they added a 7000rpm Everflow fan on it, dubbed the "Storm Cap". You're probably accustomed to 7000rpms being super loud, but the Everflow is not nearly as annoying as the Delta fans. I'll get more into this later on. Finally, with the combination of the heatsink and storm cap, the Dragon orb is a 2 piece design.
Specifications
Fan Dimension: 60x60x25 mm
Rated Voltage: 12VDC
Started Voltage: 7VDC
Power Input: 6.0W
FAN Speed: 7000±10% RPM
Max. Air Flow: 38CFM
Noise: 37dBA
Current: 0.5AMP
Interface Material: Bergquist 225U
Dimensions: 69 dia mm x 79 mm tall
Bearing System: Ball Bearing
Life Time: 50,000 hours
Connector: 3 PIN
Compatibility: AMD ATHLON 1.5GHz+, INTEL PIII 1.13GHz & TUALATIN up to 2.0GHz
The obvious difference, between the Dragon Orb 3 and conventional heatsinks, is that the Dragon Orb 3 is, erm, an orb. Actually, it's round and the idea behind it is that heat gets dissapated to the outer fins, where it gets cooled. Another difference, for the most part, is that it's HUGE! It's a lot bigger than most heatsinks, and is dwarfed only by a few on the market. The Dragon Orb 3 is quite hefty and since it doesn't use mounting screws like the Swiftech 462, I was concerned about the weight. I'll get to this later on when I talk about the clip.
Thermaltake has chosen the Everflow for their cooling needs. Now, the fan spins at 7000rpms, and theoretically can move 38cfm of air. I don't have any air measuring device, but from what I can feel from placing my hand near it, it seems to be doing a good enough job.
By the way, I still have use of all my fingers since the Dragon Orb 3 has some form of a grill. Well, it doesn't really have a grill. Fact is, the three spokes you see on the left is all there is to keep you and your wiring out of the fan. The fan is a little smaller than the Delta, but at 7000rpms, it's going to be messy if you decide to poke it. It does draw a lot of power, so unless your motherboard can handle the extra juice, you should use the included pin adapter.
Like I mentioned earlier, the top portion of the Dragon Orb 3 is known as the Storm Cap. It's sold as an upgrade for the following Orbs: CHROME ORB, MINI CHROME ORB, GOLDEN ORB, MINI GOLDEN ORB, INDIGO ORB, DRAGON ORB. To be honest, I think the upgrade for existing Orbs would be a waste of money since the added copper on the Dragon Orb assists in the cooling.
One thing I wasn't happy about, was the cap being bent when I received it. This has been reported by other reviewers as well, so I'm not the only one. It's not terrible, mind you, since it can be bent back into place, but I think Thermaltake should go back to using regular boxes to better protect the package. Since the package is see through, you could examine the cap before purchasing it.
The base of the Dragon Orb 3 is not all copper, but rather, it's a copper insert. It isn't as shiny as the other copper heatsinks we've looked at, but it is fairly well machined. Fortunently, the sample we received did not have a thermal pad attached to it. The thermal paste included is like any other 2$ tube, and no matter it's cooling properties, it's a whole lot better than thermal pads.
With the Storm Cap removed, we can take a better look at the copper insert. It's sort of a pin design, and though it may not be obvious here, the copper makes up a good 1/3 of the height of the bottom half of the heatsink. Because of the amount of copper, it is quite heavy.
I mentioned earlier that the Dragon Orb 3 doesn't use a screw mounting system, but sticks with the conventional clipping system. Thermaltake has wisely designed the clip to use all three mounting spokes (or whatever you call those things :P) on the socket. This will especially be welcome to any of you who have broken the middle spoke with other clips from previous heatsinks. Because of the weight, this was a smart move, but I had a feeling it'd be tough to install....
...and it was. I was trembling after about a good 2 minutes working on it. It's definently a lot stiffer than the Vantec clips, but there is less chance of slippage, unlike the GlobaWin clips. The reason it took me so long, was that you really need to apply a lot of force to make it latch and I guess I was too scared. It was about that time when my girlfriend asked if I wanted to watch "Legends of the Fall", so I put my fears aside and continued working on it.
Testing
As usual:
AMD Thunderbird 1.2GHz (1.75v), HSF paired with regular silicone thermal paste
Abit KT7A-RAID, with socket thermal sensor touching the bottom of the CPU
Lian-Li PC60 Aluminum Case, with only the Enermax power supply fans on
Prime95 is run for 20 minutes
Room temperature is maintained at 23C/74F
The only factor I can see affecting the scores, is the Lian-Li aluminum case. I've determined the margin of error to be approximately 2C degrees. Temperatures were gathered using VIA's Hardware Monitor. I will be putting together some sort of a heatsink roundup/database of coolers tested here and more detail in how they are tested in the near future.
Final Thoughts
The Dragon Orb 3 performs quite well. I was a little surprised that it didn't outperform the Vantec CCK-6035D, since it's so much bigger. I do think the Dragon Orb 3 will be a viable heatsink as faster and hotter CPUs arrive due to it's size. The clip is a bit troublesome, and I wasn't too impressed with the packaging. The price is decent though, selling at about 35$ US. One big plus is the noise. It's still loud mind you, but not quite as high pitched as the Delta screamers. It's more of a "woooooooo" sound, than a "weeeeee" sound. How's that for a description? :P
Thermaltake:
Pros: Fair Price, Everflow fan not as loud as Delta fans, pin adapter, good performer.
Cons: Stiff clip. Everflow is still loud, needs much more protective packaging.
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