First, I would like to thank TCWO for providing the Thermaltake Aircooler to review. The Thermaltake unit also goes under a name that some of you probably have heard of, the Golden Orb.

The Golden Orb is a more unique cooler than I’m used to seeing. With the circular shape and the fan being mounted more closely on the base and surrounded by the heatsinks fins, there was only one question in my mind, “How does this cooler perform?’ Or more specifically, “How does this cooler perform on a Pentium III Coppermine CPU?”

You may see much larger units out there for the Socket 7 and Socket 370 design, but these units may not work well with the Coppermine. Since the Coppermine has such a small and low profiled core, these larger based units may not sit flush with the CPU. That’s when the Golden Orb enters the scene.

I have been hearing from other Pentium III Coppermine owners that this unit is one of the best coolers for the FCPGA based CPU, since the golden orb is more efficient and thus uses a small base for the heatsink.

Impressions and Installation

The initial impression of a Golden Orb cooler would have to be described as awesome. The looks of the cooler simply stand out from other coolers I have seen

From pictures, you can see that the cooler is designed to be very efficient, hence the smaller size. After opening up the box the cooler was in, I noticed that it didn’t include any instructions on how to install the cooler, but rather a paper with the cooler’s specs.

Instructions would have been good for me. Like a typical guy, I thought to myself; “I don’t need the instructions anyway. I can figure this thing out myself.” This unit comes with a unique mounting bracket that I have never seen before. I decided to try to mount the unit on my Iwill Slocket II with the mounting bracket already attached to the heatsink. Well, after about a half an hour of trying that, I got smart and studied the cooler a little more.

I took the bracket off the cooler and put it on the Slocket II first. Then, I placed the heatsink on the Slocket II with the bracket already attached. This is the way it was supposed to be done. It was a little tough getting the heatsink properly placed on the Slocket II. I pushed down firmly, but feared my Slocket II would crack in half under the amount of pressure I used. As a tip, I suggest placing the Slocket on a hard flat surface, and then place the heatsink on. It is much much easier.

One of the most important things to point out here is the smaller size of the cooler is very important. Especially when using a motherboard with limited space.

If you were concerned about the amount of room you have for the socket and area around the socket, or the amount of space you have for your DIMM slots, you would probably not have to worry. There are some motherboards that may have some connectors or capacitors too tall to mount the cooler properly. In most cases this cooler will fit for your CPU where other coolers, like the Alpha, may not.

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