Thermalright NB-1

     Dethroning Swiftech is what I remember Thermalright doing. It wasn't that long ago when a small company came out with a heatsink called the SK-1, which was basically a small piece of copper that had the capability of beating a mammoth heatsink from Swiftech called the MC-462. If even for a few degrees what the SK-1 didn't have was the weight, which made it a very much sought after item. Not too long after that they did it again with the SLK900, and then one more time with the SP94 and SP97. Most people have by now acknowledged Thermalright for their excellent but simple design, and consider that when buying a Thermalright heatsink they will have excellent overclocking characteristics. This brings us to another story, the evolution of FSB overclocking, and nothing hampers that more than voltages and excessive chipset/Northbridge temperatures. Well it looks as though Thermalright is in the fight again, because we observed some excellent temperatures from their newest offering, the NB-1 chipset cooler...

NB-1 Specifications

Dimension:

L29 x W48.5 x H41 (mm) Fin only, without fan
W41.5 x H40 (mm) heat sink base

Weight:

70g (heat sink only)

Stock Fan:

Maker: DELTA
Model: AFB04512HA
Size: 45 x 45 x 10 (mm)
Bearing: Dual Ball Bearing System
Voltage: 12V
Speed: 6000 rpm
Air Flow: 11.80 CFM
Noise Level: 34dBA
Weight: 15.5g (0.55 OZ )

AMD: NF2, VIA KT333 & PRIOR (NF2, VIA KT400 & AFTER NOT SUPPORT)
Intel: All 8x5 Chipset

Features

     The NB-1 is a worthy adversary of just about anything new on the market. We have looked at some chipset fans in the past and so far our recommendation would be to opt for a Swiftech, but if history proves us right you can bet that the Thermalright offering will have more value for the same temperatures. Lets have a look at what the NB-1 is all about...

     The NB-1 kit contains everything you need to install it on your pre-AMD 64 motherboard. For our 875P installation we used the two provided clips and the keepers for the clips. Thermalright was even so kind to provide some generic white paste. Two things that Thermalright needs to know.. No one uses white paste, we all use Arctic Silver... The other, please give us some instructions.

     Spinning the NB-1 reveals a relatively smooth surface which will need to be lapped. I guess that's the real difference between the cost of a Swiftech and a Thermalright, paying someone to lap the things after manufacture.

     The fan included is a 11CFM 6000 RPM that is very quiet... so quiet you can't even hear it. It registered at 7000rpm during our testing, so whether they have gone with a different fan we are not sure, but hopefully, in time, our readers will let us know if their fans are different.

Performance & Installation

     Pre-installation is a total pain in the butt if you still have your board in your case.. We had to remove the Visiontek x800Pro, and the existing Danger Den Z-Block, along with numerous wires to get to the chipset for install. Thermalright didn't care to give any instructions, or if they did they weren't in the box. We took a good hour or so to look at the bundle of clamps to figure out which ones we needed to use for our P4C800E, and finally found that the clips work just fine. Installation wasn't so easy either since there are only two clamps and putting one side meant the other side would come up.. Having two people for this would be a lot easier, but then again we can't totally blame Thermalright since they are probably thinking people are installing the NB-1 on a brand new motherboard that is OUT of the case. Other than the clips and installation, we ran into no other problems.

We tested the Thermalright on our existing P4 Prescott powered monster which consists of the following...

• Intel Pentium 4 Prescott 3.0E

• Asus P4C800E

• Danger Den water cooling: TDX waterblock, Z-Block Chipset, D-4 Pump, BIX Micro II, Maze 4 GPU.

• OCZ EL4200 512x2

• OCZ 470W Power Supply

• Visontek x800 Pro 256mb

• Lian Li PCV2000

Results

Not too bad considering our rival was a waterblock! ;)

     The Thermalright NB-1 is a fine piece of hardware to gain the most FSB out of your existing P4 socket 478 or AMD Socket 462. Sure it doesn't offer the kind of temperatures you can gain from water cooling, but our Danger Den setup is more than capable of whipping any water cooling setup, so it was kind of the best in water vs. the best in air. Not to say that the Swiftech Chipset cooler is anything bad either. We most gripe a bit about the attachment and mounting mechanism though. Regardless if Thermalright is thinking about new motherboards, most people already have their board in their case before they are thinking of improving their FSB speed, which from what we've seen Thermalright may not have taken into consideration to seriously. Not to mention, the mounting hardware included requires either all four metal mounting rings on the motherboard to be present, or lots of room if you use the brackets. The size of the cooler alone is a disqualifying factor for many boards, including our DFI 875B and Soltek PT880 Pro.

     The n00bie factor is also there, if it weren't for our own familiarity with overclocking and using Thermalright products we probably would have thrown the kit out of the window out of frustration from not having instructions on how to install it. BUT, the NB-1 performs magnificently, and that is why we are still going to recommend it, but not without a note to you, the readers, that if you decide to go the NB-1 route be weary of install and pull your board out first.