In the interest of finding the optimal cooler for the much anticipated DR ZABER Sentry console sized case, I purchased a cooler that has seemingly been overlooked in the western world. The LP53 by Thermolab from Korea (branded as Cooltek in some European countries) caught my eye, and given the lack of information on it, I had to try it for myself.
Cooler specs:
Length 100 mm
Width 94 mm
Height 53 mm
Weight 410 g
Material 100% Copper
Rotation speed 1,000 - 2,100 rpm
Acoustical noise 16.0 - 27.1 dBa
Fan connector 4 Pin - PWM
Heatpipes 2 x 6 mm
Max. TDP 100 Watt
Compatibility: Intel LGA 115x (No AMD compatibility)
My particular LP53 was sourced, new, through eBay, shipped directly from Seoul, Korea. The price was ~$55USD. Delivery took about 3 weeks to the US. The manufacturer packaging was sufficient to keep it safe in transit.
Unboxing
No flashy coloring or marketing here. No frills, just cardboard.
Immediately upon opening the box, you're greeted by instructions that while in Korean are intelligible thanks to decent pictures. I assume if you're reading a CPU cooler review you already know a thing or two about installing a cooler so the instructions are superfluous.
The cooler is well wrapped and packaged.
Here it is freed from its packaging, ready to go head to head with the venerable Noctua NH-L9i, a favorite among SFF PC enthusiasts.
The LP53 does come with thermal paste already applied, however I'm sure most of you will opt for the thermal paste de rigueur. In the case of this review and comparison, I used Noctua's NT-H1 thermal paste which is generally well received by most PC builders.
Installation
The whole cooler is copper, through and through (except the mounting arms obviously). While it may not be too clear in the photo, the cold plate that makes contact with the CPU IHS is well machined on my unit. Not a mirror finish but easily on par with the Noctua.
Mounting the cooler involves a very similar process to the Noctua cooler. Carefully balance the motherboard and screw 4 screws in from the backside of the motherboard into the mounting arms on the cooler. Unfortunately, Thermolab does not include handy thumbscrews like Noctua, but rather simple, phillips head screws with plastic grommets to protect the motherboard. Additionally, the LP53 felt like it just wasn't quite engineered to as rigorous tolerances as the Noctua as one of the mounting arms refused to line up with the screw. After a little forceful convincing I managed to persuade the screw to meet the mounting arm.
I discovered during mounting there is no built in stop mechanism for the mounting screws designed into the LP53 like in the NH-L9i. I unwittingly over tightened the screws and had strange CPU/hardware failures after mounting. I noticed the CPU substrate (the PCB the CPU die is mounted to) was flexing significantly under the LP53. Perhaps I've stumbled upon a new method of delidding haha. Anyway, I loosened the mounting screws and the issues cleared up. I suppose the downward pressure on the CPU caused it to no longer line up with the correct pins. Needless to say, only tighten the screws about one turn after the threads begin to bite.
Overall it is a standard mounting process as long as you don't over tighten the screws.
I was initially worried the base of the cooler surrounding the cold plate (highlighted in blue above) would make contact with my CPU VRMs, but luckily I ended up having 1-1.5mm of clearance even with the cooler tightened down. This allowed me to mount the cooler with the fins running parallel to the RAM and rear I/O, which I find to be much better than perpendicular to the RAM. The latter configuration has half the exhaust trapped against the RAM, heating it up and the other half pointed at the I/O shield, which is not known for its ventilation capabilities.
For the purposes of these tests I used the Noctua NF-A9x14PWM fan that is on the NH-L9i cooler as the stock fan that comes with the LP53 renders it too tall to fit in the DR ZABER Sentry case. With the Noctua fan, the LP53, originally 53mm tall, is now more like an "LP42" at approximately 42mm high. At just 42mm, the LP53 in this configuration is well under the 47mm limit of the DR ZABER Sentry case. Check out their IndieGoGo campaign to learn more about the case, as well as their lengthy thread here on [H]. Back to the LP53, the stock cooler is a 92mm x 25mm fan that sports a unique round frame with narrow mounting holes that won't line up with many common fans on the market. It is mounted with pretty cool rubber, anti-vibration grommets that many Noctua fans come with, unfortunately they just didn't line up with the Noctua fan.
I initially tried zip ties but they kept sliding around and just didn't feel secure. So naturally, I opted for an even less professional appearing solution, rubber bands. They work great! Perhaps someone more creative than myself, or someone with a 3D printer could come up with something more elegant but for the purpose of this review and comparison, the rubber bands are satisfactory.
Test System
Tests conducted include:
Remember this is an open air test bench, so your results may vary depending on what case you may be using. Ambient air temperature was 17-18C.
Cooler specs:
Length 100 mm
Width 94 mm
Height 53 mm
Weight 410 g
Material 100% Copper
Rotation speed 1,000 - 2,100 rpm
Acoustical noise 16.0 - 27.1 dBa
Fan connector 4 Pin - PWM
Heatpipes 2 x 6 mm
Max. TDP 100 Watt
Compatibility: Intel LGA 115x (No AMD compatibility)
My particular LP53 was sourced, new, through eBay, shipped directly from Seoul, Korea. The price was ~$55USD. Delivery took about 3 weeks to the US. The manufacturer packaging was sufficient to keep it safe in transit.
Unboxing
No flashy coloring or marketing here. No frills, just cardboard.
Immediately upon opening the box, you're greeted by instructions that while in Korean are intelligible thanks to decent pictures. I assume if you're reading a CPU cooler review you already know a thing or two about installing a cooler so the instructions are superfluous.
The cooler is well wrapped and packaged.
Here it is freed from its packaging, ready to go head to head with the venerable Noctua NH-L9i, a favorite among SFF PC enthusiasts.
The LP53 does come with thermal paste already applied, however I'm sure most of you will opt for the thermal paste de rigueur. In the case of this review and comparison, I used Noctua's NT-H1 thermal paste which is generally well received by most PC builders.
Installation
The whole cooler is copper, through and through (except the mounting arms obviously). While it may not be too clear in the photo, the cold plate that makes contact with the CPU IHS is well machined on my unit. Not a mirror finish but easily on par with the Noctua.
Mounting the cooler involves a very similar process to the Noctua cooler. Carefully balance the motherboard and screw 4 screws in from the backside of the motherboard into the mounting arms on the cooler. Unfortunately, Thermolab does not include handy thumbscrews like Noctua, but rather simple, phillips head screws with plastic grommets to protect the motherboard. Additionally, the LP53 felt like it just wasn't quite engineered to as rigorous tolerances as the Noctua as one of the mounting arms refused to line up with the screw. After a little forceful convincing I managed to persuade the screw to meet the mounting arm.
I discovered during mounting there is no built in stop mechanism for the mounting screws designed into the LP53 like in the NH-L9i. I unwittingly over tightened the screws and had strange CPU/hardware failures after mounting. I noticed the CPU substrate (the PCB the CPU die is mounted to) was flexing significantly under the LP53. Perhaps I've stumbled upon a new method of delidding haha. Anyway, I loosened the mounting screws and the issues cleared up. I suppose the downward pressure on the CPU caused it to no longer line up with the correct pins. Needless to say, only tighten the screws about one turn after the threads begin to bite.
Overall it is a standard mounting process as long as you don't over tighten the screws.
I was initially worried the base of the cooler surrounding the cold plate (highlighted in blue above) would make contact with my CPU VRMs, but luckily I ended up having 1-1.5mm of clearance even with the cooler tightened down. This allowed me to mount the cooler with the fins running parallel to the RAM and rear I/O, which I find to be much better than perpendicular to the RAM. The latter configuration has half the exhaust trapped against the RAM, heating it up and the other half pointed at the I/O shield, which is not known for its ventilation capabilities.
For the purposes of these tests I used the Noctua NF-A9x14PWM fan that is on the NH-L9i cooler as the stock fan that comes with the LP53 renders it too tall to fit in the DR ZABER Sentry case. With the Noctua fan, the LP53, originally 53mm tall, is now more like an "LP42" at approximately 42mm high. At just 42mm, the LP53 in this configuration is well under the 47mm limit of the DR ZABER Sentry case. Check out their IndieGoGo campaign to learn more about the case, as well as their lengthy thread here on [H]. Back to the LP53, the stock cooler is a 92mm x 25mm fan that sports a unique round frame with narrow mounting holes that won't line up with many common fans on the market. It is mounted with pretty cool rubber, anti-vibration grommets that many Noctua fans come with, unfortunately they just didn't line up with the Noctua fan.
I initially tried zip ties but they kept sliding around and just didn't feel secure. So naturally, I opted for an even less professional appearing solution, rubber bands. They work great! Perhaps someone more creative than myself, or someone with a 3D printer could come up with something more elegant but for the purpose of this review and comparison, the rubber bands are satisfactory.
Test System
- Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97N-WIFI
- CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K (88W, Stock)
- RAM: Crucial Ballistix Tactical Low Profile DDR3 2133mhz
- GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Founder Edition
- PSU: Corsair SF600 600W SFX
- SSD: two Crucial MX200 1TB 2.5in
- Case: Homemade open air test bench
- Coolers: Thermolab LP53 w/ Noctua NF-A9x14PWM, and Noctua Nh-L9i
Tests conducted include:
- Cinebench R15
- PassMark CPU Mark
- AIDA64
- 3D Mark Firestrike @1080 ~120fps
- GTA V built in benchmark @1080 Ultra
Remember this is an open air test bench, so your results may vary depending on what case you may be using. Ambient air temperature was 17-18C.
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