Thermaltake Toughair 310 CPU Cooler Review

How Much Does it Cost?

Available now for €34.99, The Thermaltake Toughair 310 represents some amazing value for money. Make no mistake, this is, without a doubt, firmly in the entry-level air cooler price range, and when compared to other alternative models, it easily outperforms the vast majority of them while, at least in my opinion, looking vastly better! Nevertheless, this is mid-tier performance for an entry-level budget, and, quite frankly, you can’t argue with that!

Overview

Despite not choosing to adopt any sort of RGB/ARGB lighting, overall, I think that this has been an exceptionally wise choice for Thermaltake. The Toughair 310 looks exceptionally professional in its design, and with the lack of any light show getting in the way, it wouldn’t look out of place in any system build.

Better still, though, whatever you may personally perceive of the aesthetics, the performance the Toughair 310 provides is undoubtedly exceptionally decent. No, not top of the range or the highest we’ve ever seen, but for this price tag… We’ve seen coolers cost at least twice as much that didn’t (relatively speaking) perform half as well.

If there is a gripe to be made, it’s probably in the installation, but this does largely fall on personal opinion as, while the method was unusual, the figures provided in our testing certainly suggested that it worked and worked well!

Should I Buy One?

If you’re after a low-cost and decently performing CPU cooler, then based on my opinion at the time of writing (and my somewhat fuzzy memory based on the masses of products I’ve tested over the years), then the Thermaltake Toughair 310 would undoubtedly be one of the first models I would recommend. It’s inexpensive, perhaps surprisingly so, while still offering exceptionally strong aesthetics and very decent CPU temperature control. Better still, if you value low noise output, then this definitely hits that ball out of the park!

For this price, it’s a no brainer for our ‘Bang For Buck’ award. Based on everything else we’ve seen in the Thermaltake Toughair 310 though, this simply has, if not demands, to be kicked up into a higher tier!

Pros

• Amazing value for money
• Strong performance both in terms of CPU temperature control and acoustics
• Relatively simplistic installation method
• Surprisingly (based on its size) viable for low-end overclocking

Cons

• None

Neutral

• While the installation method is undoubtedly something new, and in many regards better than ‘standard’ designs, I can’t honestly say I 100% liked or trusted it despite no issue being presented in testing