Thermaltake Contac 29
PrintDirect-contact heat pipes must work!
When the wimpy-looking Cooler Master Hyper 212+ (reviewed Holiday 2009) came along and matched performance with the best air coolers on the market, we wondered if its direct-contact heat pipes were responsible, and if so, how soon we’d start seeing imitators. It didn’t take long. Thermaltake’s Contac 29 is a near–carbon copy of that little wonder, with a few subtle refinements and one colossal pain.
Like the Hyper 212+, the Contac 29 features three heat pipes that run from a heat exchanger up through a stack of thin aluminum fins, paired with a single 12cm fan (as well as room for another, if you want to push/pull air). Differing from most skyscraper-type coolers, the heat pipes on the Hyper and Contac contact the CPU heat spreader directly, instead of being embedded in a blocky heat-exchanger. The direct-contact method seems effective; in our tests, the Contac 29 matched the Hyper 212+’s performance to within one degree Celsius at full burn, and performed identically when idling.
If it had a better mounting bracket and used wire clips instead of rubber plugs, the Contact 29 would earn a Kick Ass award, for sure.
The Contac 29, though very similar to the Hyper 212+, has its unique quirks. Unlike the Hyper’s mounting system, with its backplates, bolts, and screws, the Contac 29 uses the same plastic push pins as Intel’s stock coolers. This makes installation easy, or it should—we prefer sturdier mounting brackets, though. The last few millimeters of the fins are bent 90 degrees to direct airflow and prevent leakage at the sides.
Instead of wire clips to hold the cooling fans, the Contac 29 uses rubber plugs that slide through channels in the cooling fins and secure the fan loosely. These plugs were the source of most of our frustrations with the Contac—they’re hard to remove and harder to put back, which is a deal-breaker when you have to remove the fan to install the darn thing. We much prefer the simpler wire-clip method. Thermaltake at least includes a second set of these plugs, if you want to add an additional fan.
With cooling power, footprint, and price commensurate to the Hyper 212+, the Contac 29 is a damn-fine cooler. But we’ll stick with the Hyper 212+’s more-secure installation and better fan-retention mechanism, thank you.
Thermaltake Contac 29
Contact
Top-tier performance; similar price/size as CM Hyper 212+.
Star Trek: First Contact
Tetchy push-pin install; frustrating fan attachments.
9
Benchmarks
| Thermaltake Contac 29 | CoolerMaster Hyper 212+ | Stock Cooler | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Idle (C) | 30.25 | 30.25 | 35 |
| 100% Burn (C) | 45.75 | 45 | 62.5 |
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 inside a Corsair 800D case with stock fans.
More like this
11
Comments
MyWayNYC
May 13, 2010 at 10:28am
I don't do push pins,NO matter how good the Cooler performs!
Black Panther AKA T'Challa PRINCE of Wakanada
innervoid
May 06, 2010 at 11:17am
These push pin Coolers are nothing but trouble , I tried one once with my Stock Core 2 E8400 and temptures were all over the board , From 70c to 50c on full load. IT seems to me a flawed design. I Quickly Bought the XIGMATEK Direct touch heat pipe cooler and Back plate option. (Chunked the Push pins out the window) on another note this Baby is still Working perfectly with loads of dust bunnies clogging my HSF. Never goes above 50c at 3.6 ghz. So yea i am all for the direct touch Tech! and open heatpipe dual fans on my GPU as well. I just love the MSI GTX 260 oc3 with the 5 heatpipes and twin fans ! Never goes above 60c over clocked to a 700mhz 1500 shader , in an antac 900 case !!
Also wanted to note i have been Reading this mag ever since "BOOT" Magazine!!! you guys havent lost it YET .
But the mag keeps getting thinner and thinner !!
fusobotic
May 05, 2010 at 6:36am
I'm sticking with my 212+ also, keeps my Phenom IIx3 720 @ 3.4GHz below 35C at burn, 22C at idle. Wish I could push it more, but the voltages are giving me problems.
Maybe this is just me, but the thermal paste that comes with the 212+ was kind of dry. It was hard to apply but it performed well, couldn't notice a difference in temps even when I replaced the compound with some name brand stuff (which went on much easier). But I'm not sure how the included compound would cope with temps above 40C.
Come on MaxPC crew! FIX THE SPAM FILTER!!!! It's not just a few people, everyone's tired of it already!
fourfinger
May 04, 2010 at 10:01pm
you need to re-read what they are saying; they are sticking with the 212 saying this is not better
dankers
May 04, 2010 at 6:14pm
But we’ll stick with the Hyper 212+’s more-secure installation and
better fan-retention mechanism, thank you.
arch-chancellor
May 04, 2010 at 5:39pm
Did you guys remember to clean out those dust bunnies before testing?
keithfreitag
May 04, 2010 at 4:54pm
How the fuck did this become best of the rest in Coolers? I got the Hyper 212+ and I'm shocked at the shitty push pins on the Contac and the fan attachments that you are calling this better. Hell the numbers don't lie, the 212+ beats the 100% burn in by .25 and sure the contac matches the idle; It's a carbon copy of the best cooler (the 212+) yet you say it's better bc it copies but doesn't match the burn in temp. You guys must of been drinking the koolaid or something.
Steve Jobs is the Devil and loves Open tech, wait Proprietary tech, no Open tech, ummmm he hates Flash!
Keith
MY RIG
- Asus P7P55
- Intel Core i7-860
- 6GB Corsair XMS 3 DDR3 (dual channel mode)
- BFG 880GTS 640MB PCIe
- Creative X-Fi Elite Pro
- BLANK
keithfreitag
May 05, 2010 at 7:31pm
I just saw it was best of the best for May 2010 not the actual best of the best. My bad MaxPC, can we kiss and make up.
Steve Jobs is the Devil and really wants to find a mate on Cupidtino!
Keith
MY RIG
- Asus P7P55
- Intel Core i7-860
- 6GB Corsair XMS 3 DDR3 (dual channel mode)
- BFG 880GTS 640MB PCIe
- Creative X-Fi Elite Pro
- BLANK
highsidednb
May 04, 2010 at 6:36pm
Yeah. Seriously. What's up? Can't read your own benchmarks?
And what's with the editorial about how awesome the ipad is in the latest issue to hit my doormat?
Why are you slipping?
kiaghi7
May 04, 2010 at 4:29pm
In the future I'd really like to see a review of the Prolima Megahalems with dual Noctua or Scythe fans (since they are famously quiet) rated at 50+ CFM each...
From the specs I've seen even with lesser fans, it can actually make a heck of a run on even liquid cooling schemes and throughly trounces all comers in air cooling. Please do your own independent investigation on them and of course share the results!
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