Thermaltake Frio Advanced CPU Cooler Review

When we observe the facts these cooling ‘big boys’ are eating the 4.4GHz overclock for breakfast (albeit while getting heartburn by lunch), we decided that there was need for an even higher overclock to separate the men from boys, the high end from the extreme, the coolers from the refrigerators.

With our goal being to provide realistic results of what end users are likely to be able to achieve and successfully run with their processors, we decided a dynamic 4.7GHz overclock was a great frequency to aim for. Upping the 2600K CPU’s core voltage to a BIOS set 1.340V which peaked at 1.40V under load conditions, would be perfect for testing the overclocking headroom available with these heat dissipation monsters. The idle temperature will remain low due to the dynamic overclock’s ability to decrease the multiplier under low CPU load condition. This is different to our static 4.4GHz overclock.

Note: Unfortunately, we are unable to show the Corsair H80 CPU cooler’s results at this frequency due to an absence of the required data.

Remember, our test CPU is a hot runner, so a 4.7GHz frequency and peak voltage of 1.40V aren’t settings that just any cooler can tackle. The fact that Thermaltake’s Frio Advanced even manages to complete our extreme 4.7GHz overclock test is a major achievement. The £40 Venom Voodoo struggles to cope with the huge amounts of heat energy being released from our 4.7GHz 2600K, but it manages to stay just below our threshold of a 65°C delta. Another £10 gets you the Frio Advanced which offers you a performance benefit of over 12% or 7.9°C. For the 2nd time, the significantly cheaper Frio Advanced manages to show up Noctua’s £15 more expensive NH-D14 by matching the dual tower Goliath’s performance. Anybody planning on forking out for Noctua’s flagship may want to re-assess their options. The slightly more expensive Silver Arrow still has the upper hand over the Frio Advanced by managing 5.5% better performance with the smallest of price increases.