Installation
I installed the Thermaltake DuOrb CPU cooler in my standard test rig, which has been wrapped in a brand new enclosure. Here’s a rundown of the pertinent specifications.
- AMD Phenom 9850 2.5GHz Quad Core CPU
- Asus M3A32-MVP Deluxe/WiFi-AP 790FX Motherboard
- OCZ Platinum XTC REV.2 PC2-6400 2GB 2X1GB DDR2-800 Memory Kit
- Foxconn 9800GTX-512N Extreme OC Video Card
- Western Digital 640GB Caviar SE16 7200rpm SATA2 Hard Drive
- NZXT Tempest Midtower ATX Case
- Thermaltake Toughpower 1000W Power Supply
Hopefully the parts selection above puts the hurt down hard enough for us to tell if the DuOrb is decent…or not.
Installation went without a hitch. Once I removed the motherboard, I was able to install the mounting bracket without issue. This was important, as the DuOrb does still block some connectors on our test motherboard. Most notably it blocks the 8-pin power connector near the top of the board. Once the mounting bracket was installed, I was able to drop the motherboard back in, connect the required cables, and mount the DuOrb heatsink. So overall, not as big a deal as I had initially anticipated.
Other then some minor cabling issues, there was little problem with the fit of the DuOrb on our test motherboard or in our test case. The aforementioned brackets didn’t interfere at all with the motherboard-bound heatsinks of the installed RAM, though if you are using any modules with the raise heatsink design like CORSAIR Dominators or OCZ FlexXLC modules, you may want to rethink the purchase of this heatsink as it will not clear.
The only fit issue I could identify with our test installation of the DuOrb was shown in the instructions. Basically if the mounting holes for a motherboard are configured a certain way the cooler will have to be mounted vertically, cutting off the standard position of the x16 PCIe slot normally occupied by a video card. Since this is not an acceptable proposition, you will need to double check current motherboard layout before considering this cooler as it clearly isn’t totally universal with all setups.
Thankfully that wasn’t the case with our test system. Once installed and powered on the DuOrb made itself right at home, going straight to work on cooling my system. The red and blue lights aren’t an indication of anything; they’re just a cool effect added by Thermaltake. Anyhow since installation was problem free in our case, it’s time to try to create some problems with testing.
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