Thermalright IFX-14
PrintInstalling Thermalright’s beefy IFX-14 CPU cooler is incredibly complex. Assembling the troublesome amalgam of parts, pieces, screws, and brackets made us long for the snap-lock mechanism of standard Intel coolers. That said, the IFX-14 delivers massive cooling when it’s up and running. But there’s a caveat: It doesn’t include any fans. Thus, its performance depends on the type of fan you attach to one or two sides of the device. Our benchmarks are based on the use of two generic 12cm fans we pulled from a box in the Lab.
Installing Thermalright’s beefy IFX-14 CPU cooler is incredibly complex. Assembling the troublesome amalgam of parts, pieces, screws, and brackets made us long for the snap-lock mechanism of standard Intel coolers. That said, the IFX-14 delivers massive cooling when it’s up and running. But there’s a caveat: It doesn’t include any fans. Thus, its performance depends on the type of fan you attach to one or two sides of the device. Our benchmarks are based on the use of two generic 12cm fans we pulled from a box in the Lab.
You’ll want to plan out the cooler’s (and your motherboard’s) installation before you actually attach the IFX-14, as it can block a good chunk of your motherboard’s cabling routes and standoff holes.
Even getting two fans to work with the IFX-14 can be troublesome. This cooler’s immense size—two towers of heatsink fins connected to four 0.8cm heat pipes—caused the device to push right against our RAM, making it difficult to attach the fan-mounting clips. The IFX-14 also nudged up against the north bridge on our EVGA 680i motherboard. This forced us to rest a southern cooling fan in the split between the cooler’s heat pipes. It’s hardly an ideal location, as we were unable to secure the fan to either of the cooler’s fins.
The IFX-14’s cooling performance is better than our champion’s, Thermaltake’s DuOrb, by a few degrees in both our idle and burn tests. But the cooler’s usability issues make us long to trade in these degrees for a more painless installation process—or one that doesn’t constrain our case options. For example, if you incorporate the IFX-14’s optional back-side heat-pipe cooler into your installation, you won’t be able to use a top-mounted power supply. There’s simply not enough room. Likewise, we made the mistake of screwing the cooler into place before testing how its size would affect our motherboard installation. The cooler blocked two standoff screws and taxed our ability to connect power supply cables.
Bigger is often better in the world of CPU cooling, but the IFX-14 pushes the limit too far.
Thermalright IFX-14
Colossus
Wonderful cooling performance; unique rear cooler for the motherboard.
the blob
Gigantic, difficult to install, no fans included.
8
Benchmarks
| IFX-14 (no fans) | IFX-14 (two fans) | Thermaltake DuOrb | Stock Cooler | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Idle (C) | 51.3 | 29.8 | 31.0 | 41.8 |
| 100% Burn (C) | 96.0 | 44.0 | 49.5 | 69.3 |
Best scores are bolded. Idle temperatures were measured after an hour of inactivity; load temperatures were measured after an hour’s worth of CPU Burn-In (four instances). Test system consists of a stock-clock Q6700 processor on an EVGA 680i motherboard.
More like this
mitpatterson
November 11, 2008 at 6:31pm
Is it just me or are the first 2 paragraphs identical word for word, Mabey an error in copying from a document or the mag to the website?
mitpatterson
Electron_Star
November 12, 2008 at 4:08am
It looks great, but not good enough they described it twice. <lol> fire whoever is spellchecking thids codument
b_boy_69_00
November 11, 2008 at 1:09pm
If your going to run this thing without fans you might as well set your PC on fire and save some money. Why would they not just include a set of cheap fans with it and raise the price $5?
Connect with MaximumPC
Featured Content
We introduce Intel's latest class of tablet killers and review 4 of the first Ultra...
Where have all the memorable videogame enemies gone?
This month's issue
Feature
11 Hardware Hacks
Feature
Overclock Your CPU
How-To
Supercharge Your Smartphone
Build It
A Powerful $830 Rig
Most Commented Articles
Latest Max PC Tweets
- maximumpc: Micron: DRAM Prices Likely as Low as They're Going to Get http://t.co/fFUWuFOm1 hour 53 min ago
- maximumpc: Yar, Mateys! All Of Pirate Bay Made Available As A Single 90MB Zip File http://t.co/j5LHlXEZ3 hours 7 min ago
- maximumpc: Blizzard Newstravaganza: Diablo III Gets Release Window, Blizz Sues Valve over DOTA http://t.co/79gkeH7p5 hours 1 min ago
