Thermaltake Frio OCK CPU Cooler

Legit Reviews has put the Thermaltake Frio OCK cooler to the test today. How did this massive heatpipe HSF perform? Here's a quote from the review:

The time I’ve spent using the Thermaltake Frio OCK has yielded positive results. The Frio OCK was definitely able to handle the heat of a heavily overclocked Intel Core i5 2500k CPU with little to no trouble at all. The fans weren’t overly loud on any setting until they hit their maximum speed.

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One hell of a heatsink. I have the standard Frio with white fans and it runs quiet and mounts very sturdy (although mounting it can be somewhat of a PITA) it's a great OCing fan and Thermaltakes refurb store sells it real cheap with everything you need. Can usually find it for $10-20 refurb.

I really wish they would have put it against the Noctua NH-D14 and the Silver Arrow.

If the thing is $70, those other coolers are in the ballpark. They are the incumbents in the area.

I would like to see some more head to head comparisons. I'm in the market for something a little better than my Hyper and was looking at the CM 812 but would also like the D14 and this one looks good too. Then there is the H100 that would fit PERFECTLY in my beautiful new 500R. Hmmmm....

I've got one. It's basically an almost-exact copy of the Megahalems with a big plastic fan shroud covering it up. Take off the plastic shroud and you'd easily mistake it for a Mega (which I also have). Even the assembly is almost exactly the same. If they used the same thread screws, you could almost interchange them (unfortunately they don't). Works as good/bad as the Mega, but the Mega is more versatile with fan choice. Your kinda stuck with the fans the Frio has, as there is no way to swap them out of the plastic shroud part. The shroud does allow easy put-on/take-off of the fan assembly compared to squeezing your hands in to attach little metal clips on the Mega. The thing I don't like about the Frio is the 3 pin CPU fan header so you're pretty much relegated to use manual fan adjustment.

The only real difference between the two (beyond fan/shroud difference) is the slight difference in shape/size of the base. The Mega being more squarish versus the Frio's more rectangular shape base. Both work great on a smaller 1155 socket sized processor. I personally think the Mega fits a little better (as in covers more evenly) on a large 2011 socket sized processor.

I ended up with the Frio on a 2600K and put my Mega on my 3960K with a much more high-volume capable fan setup as this CPU runs much hotter. The mildly overclocked 2600K idles in the low 30's and maxes in the low 70's with either cooler the Frio or the Mega. The 3960K idles in the mid-40's and maxes at the "very high" 80's with the Frio and fans on high, while with the Mega it idles the same but maxes at a slightly lower "mid-high" 80's and roughly the same fan noise. I think the Mega does a tiny bit better on the 3960K simply because of more even coverage of the base on the larger 2011 socket CPU size, however for any of the smaller sized processors I think they perform identical with the same equivalent fan choices.

I'm not real happy with the performance of either air cooler on the 3960K if I overclock it, but at least with the Mega, I can put on a couple of big Delta's and crank up the speed to keep the temps in check easier for when I feel I need more CPU power (which is rare anymore beyond benchmarks).