Thermalright HR-05

Installation

In order to compare to the other chipset coolers we’ve seen, and as this is the only board we have that will support the cooler (individual heatsinks) I’ll be attaching the cooler to our Biostar TA690G AM2 board.

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This board uses standard push-pin mounting, and the shortest bracket was the one for the job. We now test out-of-the-box performance (denoted as ‘OTB’) which uses the packaged heatpaste to give you an idea of whether using third-party heatpaste is a good idea.

I first gave the silicon a clean with some TIM clean and kitchen roll giving me a nice shiny surface on which to squirt some of the provided heatpaste which is white and a little OEM looking.

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After pushing the pins through the bracket, I plonked the cooler on the motherboard itself and then forced one of the pins into the mobo hole. This then tilts the other side up and makes it a tedious experience to get the second pin in, while lining up the bulge and indentation on the top of the cooler. It takes a while, but this is definitely the most elegant mounting system I’ve used for a chipset cooler.

The chipset on this board is surprisingly close to the CPU itself, and while others didn’t manage to fit in the space provided, the HR-05 snugly sat next to the stock cooler. This not only looks professional, but the HR-05 will get a nice collateral breeze from the CPU fan lowering its temperature.

If your chipset is in a less than optimal position, you can get this cooler in the SLI version which has an L-shaped heatpipe that moves the tower fins away from the chip itself.

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Coolers