Written By:
Date Posted: September 9, 2002

For anyone who has used the Volcano 7, or have at least seen it up close, will know that it is very large. The copper insert, ass well as the 80mm fan adds to the weight, making this one of the heavier heatsinks we've tested for the Athlon. No doubt, a few of you have snapped the center lug, either from heavy heatsinks, or from the pure force these clips put out.

Thermaltake addresses the issue by including a 3 prong clip. There are actually 3 prongs on both ends of the clip, making use of all 6 lugs on the Socket-A. The clip is quite stiff, but with 6 prongs, you cabe sure that the Volcano 9 isn't going anywhere once you put it on.

Another problem with traditional clips is that, other than needing a flathead screwdriver to install, is there is no precautionary measures to prevent the screwdriver from slipping and gouging your motherboard. Not so with the Volcano 9, as the clip has a screwdriver guide built in that ensures that you don't slip and crack your motherboard.

Smart Case Fan 2

The Smart Case Fan 2 is the update to the original Smart Case Fan. This is a thermal controled Everflow fan, meaning that depending on the temperature, the fan will speed up as it gets hotter, and slow down when the temperature drops. It worked alright with the previous version, but it wasn't perfect. The original Smart Case Fan only detected the ambient case temperature. If your system cooling is very good, it was rare for the case fan to go full bore. It was possible to mod the fan slightly, by moving the probe closer to the heatsink, but it wasn't perfect.

As before, a nice shiny Thermaltake fan grill is included in the package. I wouldn't really count on it to protect your fingers from getting caught in the fan blades, it does add a nice cosmetic touch to the overall package.

One major criticism of the previous Smart Fan was that it wasn't all that "smart". The fan was temperature sensing, meaning, if the ambient case temperature was warm, the fan would speed up, and when ambient temperature was lower, it'd slow down. The reasoning behind this is that a cooler system would be quieter, as the fan did not spin as fast. The reality was, most systems wouldn't run hot enough (case temperature) for the fan to spin full throttle.

There were ways around this. One way was to move the probe closer to the heatsink. A warmer heatsink would spin the fan faster, but it wouldn't always meet up with the base of the heatsink, especially if your heatsink design is large. Another method would be simply modding the sensor "inactive", which defeats the whole purpose of getting a temperature controlled fan in the first place.

The Smart Case Fan 2 is indeed a lot "smarter" now. You have access to a jumper this time, and you can do one of three things:

1) Leave the jumper as is. By doing so, the fan will spin at full speed, 75.7 CFM at 4800 rpm. At 48db, this isn't quiet by any stretch, but noise gets the job done.

2) Remove the jumper, and insert the dial instead. You know have control over how fast the fan should spin, though like the Volcano 7+, access to the dial will not be easy as it'll be inside the case.

3) Remove the jumper, and insert the thermal probe. This is the method most people modded to acheive the ideal working conditions of the original Volcano 7. The probe is the same as the ones in the various Hardcanos. It's thin enough to shimmy between the CPU pins, and long enough that you shouldn't have any problems doing this.

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