Anyone who is familiar with Thermaltake can tell you that they're known for their "Orb" series of coolers. They've expanded their product line quite extensively, and now they offer a low profile heatsink for rack mount installations called the Thermaltake P4 Tiny Fin 478.
We've looked at several Athlon heatsinks, but not once have I had the need to look at a Pentium 4 solution. Truth is, most of the Athlon coolers were of the "performance" variety, simply because they run that hot. We've had a Dell Precision P4 1.8GHz in house for quite some time, and the stock cooling did what it needed to do. I had contemplated a rack encased entertainment unit for awhile, but that's a project I haven't started for a number of reasons, one of which is a decent cooler that would fit into a 1U case (think pizza box). Well, I have still yet to get my rack mount case, but we're still going to put this heatsink to the test.
Specifications
P/N: A1240
Fan Dimension: 70x70x10 mm
Rated Voltage: 12V
Started Voltage: 7V
Power Input: 4.68W
FAN Speed: 4800±10% RPM
Air Pressure: 4.08mm- H2O
Max. Air Flow: 30.37CFM
Noise: 39dBa
Rated Current: 0.39A (Max.)
Bearing System: 1Ball & 1Sleeve
Life Time: 30,000 hours
Connector: 3 PIN
Thermal Resistance Socket 478: Ca= 0.42 °C/W
The fan used on the Thermaltake P4 Tiny Fin 478 is of the low profile 70mm variety. It isn't too loud, but does make a noticable whine. Considering that most server racks make a ton of noise, I don't think this would matter. Either way, for home use, it isn't nearly as loud as the common Delta 60mm fans.
The heatsink is composed entirely of copper. Considering it's small size, it is actually one of the heavier ones we've worked with. Despite the obvious machining swirls, the heatsink itself is quite smooth. I do think that most DIY users will want to lap it though, as the machining is obvious to the human eye.
Pictured below is a clear shot of the thin fins. I haven't bothered counting them, but there are a lot.
The fins at either end are a bit mashed. I'm not sure if this would affect cooling, but considering how low profile the product is, I'm guessing there was no other cost effective way of mounting the fan.
Performance
We're going to be testing this on a Dell Precision 340 Workstation. If you're familiar with Dell, you'll know that active cooling isn't their thing. Instead, they use a huge heatsink, attached to a plastic duct with a 92mm case fan exhausting heat. Considering that Pentium 4s run relatively cool, this seems to be enough. We'll be yanking that off though, and replacing it with the Thermaltake P4 Tiny Fin 478.
Dell Precision 340, 1.8GHz
512MB RDRAM
Dell Mini Tower, with one case fan
Matrox G450
80GB ATA100 Hard Drive
Prime 95 run for 20 minutes
For testing, we attached a temperature probe to the edge of the Pentium 4 die, and monitored the temperature under full load. We tested the Thermaltake P4 Tiny Fin 478 against Dell's stock cooling. Because this is the only P4 cooler we have had time to do for this review, I haven't tested it against any others. Also, because it's a Dell, there won't be any overclocking results.
Being the first time I've tested a Pentium 4, I was a little surprised with the temps. Anyhow, we can see the Tiny Fin besting Dell's stock cooling, but in their defense, it's only a heatsink.
Wow, that's hot. For the record, the Dell was still rock stable during testing, but I know if I saw these numbers on my Athlon, I'd be flipping out about now. Anyways, as expected, the Tiny Fin is quite a bit cooler than the stock cooling. One thing to point out (again) was the noise level was very acceptable, though Dell's solution is silent.
Final Words
I would have to say that the fan does perform much better than the alternative we have here in the labs. Because it wasn't really a fair test, I won't be weighing the cooling ability too much in our final score.
Some problems we found were that the base wasn't as smooth as what we're typically accustomed to from Thermaltake. The fan is relatively quiet, but still has the high pitched squeal, but then again, in a server environment, there are louder things. This brings us to our next point, where I'd imagine 99% of home users probably have towers or desktop machines. If this is you, a heatsink such as this may not be what you need.
What the Tiny Fin 478 does well is that it's a piece of cake to install. It's a nice looking heatsink, and the construction quality is top notch. Despite the last comments regarding form factor, cramped desktop enclosures and 1U rack mounts (which normally use only a passive solution) now have a product that may suit their situations.
Thermaltake:
Pros: Easy installation, good performance, great construction quality...
Cons: ... though the base needs lapping. Not geared to the "regular" DIY user.
If you have any comments, be sure to hit us up in our forums.
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