NZXT Respire T40 CPU Cooler Review

The NZXT Respire T40 is priced at around £37.99 in the UK. At that price the NZXT Respire T40 is stuck in a highly competitive £30-£40 price point for mid range heatsinks, and like many other products we’ve tested it offers a good balance between noise, performance, price and functionality. My main concern would be the lack of a PWM fan that makes this cooler as noisy at idle as it as at load which can be irritating if your case doesn’t do a great job at concealing noise.

The NZXT Respire T40 comes in at a price that is slightly higher than I would of expected for the acoustic and cooling performance it offers. It is cheaper than the Spire TME III and Dark Rock 2 and only sacrifices a negligible amount of performance (1-2 degrees) but it is outdone by both the cheaper Gelid GX-7 and Cooler Master Hyper 412 Slim. However, the NZXT Respire T40 does have some major design wins in having 100% RAM compatibility with LGA 1155, having room to add a second fan and having clean aesthetics that will suit nearly all systems.

The Respire T40 is a well rounded package offering simplicity, solid performance and a no-frills-attached mentality. The NZXT Respire T40 comes recommended from eTeknix but at its price we can see there are better CPU coolers for the money and so the NZXT Respire T40 misses out on an award.