Introduction

The CPU cooler industry is so saturated today, that in order to survive you always have to be on top of your competition. A few weeks ago we reviewed some coolers by this relatively new company called Fortis Technology. Today we have yet another new comer know as Thermal Integration, also known as T.I.T.I. Thermal Integration have been in this cooler market for almost a year now and so far they seem have built up a good name for themselves. Most of their coolers don't look anything of the ordinary except for the revolutionary retention lever that they have introduced. However from what I have seen and heard these coolers seem to have quite a force not to be overlooked.

Today we bring to you four of their newest coolers for the Socket A market, namely the TI-S86, TI-V86, TI-V77 and TI-V86N. All these coolers go by the name of Dr. Thermal, as if to say it'll solve all your cooling problems. (Well we shall see…) On the initial outlook of things, all four of these coolers look pretty much the same except for their cooling fans. The overall design of them seem to be very much the same. The last time I saw this design in a cooler was when we reviewed the ThermoEngine "Super-Charged" by Thermosonic Technologies. All of them have the same cylindrical core in the middle and heat dissipating fins protruding out from the core. At the time and even now, the ThermoEngine is a great cooler, which means there is great promise for these DR. Thermal coolers as well. So lets go through one by one to see what each cooler has in offer.


Dr. Thermal TI-V86N

I must say the specs of the cooler are quite appealing, even to hardcore overclockers. Take a look yourself.

* cooler dimension: 83.3 x 69.8 x 61.8mm
* weight: Approx ~ 300g
* fan 60x60x25mm
* rated voltage: DC12v
* fan rpm: 6800rpm
* noise level: 45dba
* air delivery: 36cfm

The specs show that this cooler is quite a mean ass unit. 36CFM is more than adequate for a high-end cpu cooler. Taking a close look at the cooler you notice that the core of the V86N is one solid copper block which is surrounded by aluminum. The combination of these two metal types makes it an ideal cooling solution. As we have mentioned so many times before Copper absorbs heat the fastest, while Aluminum dissipates that absorbed heat the fastest. As you can see this makes it an ideal combination.

What's more interesting is that the total area covering the CPU die is no more than an inch in diameter. Unlike other coolers where to total CPU is covered by the heatsink, with the TI-V86N's design air is able to reach the CPU directly as well. Logically this should amount to better cooling, and we shall find out soon enough.

The motherboard retention mechanism of this cooler is yet again another innovative design that I haven't come across before. It uses a special clip mechanism, similar to the motherboard retention clip to hold the CPU in place. All you need to do is place the two clips over the motherboard catches and lower the lever down to secure it in place. It's that simple. One thing I noticed however was that due to a minor error in manufacture the copper die if the cooler does not sit right in the center of the CPU. It isn't much of a big deal, but it could have some effect on performance. Thermal-integration has also added a chrome fan grill covering the cooling fan for safety reasons.

Alright now it's time to check what this cooler can really do. We used Arctic Silver 3(AS3) as our thermal base. Results were obtained after one whole day's continuous use. Arctic Silver says it needs to be there for 72hrs before it reaches its full potential, however we couldn't do that due to time constraints.

Test Setup

We used 3D Mark 2001SE, Sisoft Sandra burn-it test, Quake III arena and a few other gaming applications to heat up the CPU. The results taken were after 30 minutes of continuous usage. Temperature was monitored by a CompuNurse thermal probe.

Well as the results show the V86N is quite a respectable cooler. Thunderbirds run hotter than the new AthlonXP CPU's and we see this clearly in the results as well. I consider a cooler really good if it's below 40C when under full load, and this one falls right into the bracket.