Thermaltake POLO 735 Extreme 3 in 1 Cooler :: mvk.tech :: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280 GTX 260 9800 GX2 9600 GT 8800 GTX ATI Radeon HD 4870 HD 4850 HD 3870 X2 HD 3850 2900 XTX

This is the Polo 735 Cooler locked and loaded on our Pentium 4 2.8c on a MSI 865PE NEO 2 Mother-board. Now we are off to temperature testing and analyzing.

For convenience we are going to use the included PCI expansion slot fan controller, so we will side line the 3.5" controller as you can only use one at a time. The controller attaches to any un-used PCI expansion slot and allows manual adjustment of the fan RPM's. The control range is not bad at all, you will get a range from 2200 RPM to 5500 RPM. There is a blue jumper that you will use to jump the sensor connector to allow full 100% RPM at all times, if you should choose to use this method.

With the test rig configured and installed on our HighSpeed PC Tech Station we are going to take some sample readings using some synthetic and real time monitoring deivces and give you the heads up on this solid copper base 80mm beast! Some might want to have it silent running at around 2000 RPM, but you will not get maximum cooling at this lowest setting.

Initial power up was loud! Much to my suprise the Cooler was spooled up at 5500RPM on start up do to the fact our PCI Controller was set to maximum. Even when lowering the Polo 735 to its minimum setting the Cooler was still rather loud in my opinion. Let's go put this thing into overload and see how she performs.

We found out some interesting data when comparing the Thermaltake Polo 735 Cooler to the Zalman 7000A-Cu. Basically these two devices cool at about the same heat dissapation rate. However what is drastically different is how they cool off the CPU. Being a smaller unit the Thermaltake has to push lots more air at higher volumns to stay competitive with the Zalman. At max RPM both units cool off at about the same rate, but the Polo 735 is a lot louder during that process.

Under D3D environments I set the fans to maximum to give us the full potential of each cooling unit tested. I ran each game about one hour and took sample readings from our Aerogate II and Sandra Professional for real time and synthetic results.

I also used the included temperature sensor while testing the games and noticed the RPM's never changed and we suspect this is because of our open air test environment. The CPU never reached temperatures that would cause the sensor to spool up the Polo 735 CPU Cooler when we did not use the PCI Controller.

Before playing the games I noticed that our real time Aerogate readings offered lower than usual temperatures and this is simply because we are using a open air test bench to run this test.

The system has a base ambient temperature which is a lot lower than in a closed case so our temps are going to be lower to begin with. Our CPU was lapped to a mirror finish prior to this review so the performance is going to be better at any rate.

Final Thoughts:

All in all, this is a pretty impressive cooler, it does work great and would of probably been a huge hit with us if it was not so loud at maximum RPM. Other than that this is a pretty straight forward easy to install CPU Cooler and should be considered on any ones short list. The socket 478 mounting instructions and the procedures were easy and understandable.

You will need to remove the blue shroud to facilitate the installation of the proper platform retention mechanism based on the CPU configuration you are using. Simply un-screw the four Philips heads screws and insert your retainer and put back the shroud and you are in business. While this might be a hassle to some it was just a matter of taking an extra 5 minutes to do so.

Thermaltake did a great job on this package by retailing the product with the versatile controllers and sensors. This will aid in providing a choice as to how one wants to control the device and for that we like that aspect of the product. Choices are great and to be able to have several using this Cooler is appealing. If sound is not a problem for you then this cooler will rate high among those who can tune out background noises and high revving fans. That was our only issue with the Cooler was the fact its loud at full on, however it competes with 92mm Coolers at this rate, so its up in the air and a user preference as to noise over functionality.

It will definitely tame a Pentium 4 system and offer superior cooling over retail HSF. With excellent cooling and looks, Thermaltake hits a home run with the Polo 735.

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