Cooler Master TPC 800 CPU Cooler Review

Today we are going to look at the Cooler Master TPC 800 CPU heatsink which is the latest addition to the Cooler Master range. While it may appear to be just like any other tower heatsink on the market, a closer look reveals that there is something quite different about the TPC 800. In addition to the heatpipes transferring heat from the CPU block, Cooler Master have included two vertical vapour chambers to improve heat dissipation. Cooler Master are very well established in the cooling market and are one of the oldest brands in the enthusiast sector. They have a reputation for producing high quality products which perform well, and all without breaking the bank. Much of our focus has been directed towards new players in the cooling market such as Phanteks and Be Quiet! so it will be interesting to see how Cooler Master compare today. It's worth noting that the TPC 812 is identical to the TPC 800 but is supplied with a fan as well. The TPC 800 is for users who want to accessorise the cooler with their own fans. Features The TPC 800 uses 2 separate cooling technologies to transfer heat – heat pipes and vertical vapor chambers. The first-ever CPU heatsink to use vertical vapor chamber technology. 100% pure polished copper base – combined with improved soldering technologies for the best thermal transfer. Special fin design – heatsink receives concentrated cold airflow. Improved air pressure design and fan mounting system. Specification CPU Socket Support: Intel LGA 2011/1366/1156/1155/775, AMD FM1/AM3+/AM2+/AM2 Dimensions: 134 x 74 x 158 mm Weight: 826g Warranty: 2 years The Cooler Master TPC 800 is supplied in a very exclusive looking box which is decorated in a black and purple colour scheme with silver accents. The front of the box features a large image of the cooler within alongside a concise list of the most prominent features and specifications. Turning the box around reveals a much more detailed breakdown of the heatsink's features and specifications alongside three diagrams illustrating the dimensions of the cooler. The box feels very good quality and there is sufficient inner packaging to prevent damage in transit. Cooler Master include a relatively comprehensive bundle with the heatsink which consists of all the mounting accessories, a tube of thermal paste and an installation guide. Please note that this heatsink isn't supplied with fans so you'll need to purchase these separately yourself. Cooler Master provide two sets of brackets in the bundle for attaching fans. Rather than invest heavily in machining interesting designs into the actual heatsink of a CPU cooler, most manufacturers opt for relatively simple designs and then accessories them with visually striking fans. As the TPC 800 is only available as a heatsink only, it looks quite plain in terms of aesthetics. This means you can choose fans which compliment your other components aesthetically, though, which makes this a positive trait. You also don't end up with one or two substandard fans at extra cost. Like the vast majority of quality air coolers on the market, the stack of aluminium fins is straddled across six U-shaped heatpipes which are made from nickel-plated copper. The two tips of the vertical vapour chamber is also visible as they protrude from the top of the heatsink like the heatpipes. Turning the heatsink over reveals a congestion of heatpipes passing through the nickel-plated copper CPU block on the underside of the cooler as Cooler Master have also had to make room to attach the vapour chamber on the top. As you can see in the picture above, the CPU block on our sample was actually quite dirty when we removed the protective film. We expect that this is because we have an early sample of the cooler, though which was tested internally before shipping. We cleaned the CPU block before installing the cooler to restore its beautiful polished finish. As we mentioned earlier in the review, the TPC 800 isn't supplied with any fans. Cooler Master do supply two sets of fan brackets, though, so you can either attach one or two 120mm fans to the cooler. We decided to test the cooler with two Be Quiet! Shadow Wings 120mm fans which spin at 1500 RPM. They offer decent airflow and generate a virtually inaudible level of noise which makes them ideal for building a quiet system. Cooler Master include a relatively good installation guide with the cooler which guides us through the installation procedure. The mounting mechanism isn't as good as the one employed by Noctua but it's still pretty simple to use. We will be documenting the installation procedure on a Biostar TZ77XE4 motherboard (LGA 1155). First of all the screws on the retention bracket must be adjusted so that they are in the correct place for whichever socket the cooler is being mounted to. This is very simple and the different positions for each socket are clearly documented in the installation guide. Next, the backplate and mounting stand-offs have to be secured to the motherboard. These are secured together using four nuts on the reverse side of the motherboard which can be tightened using a screwdriver with the provided adapter. The thermal compound can then be applied to the processor and the heatsink can be secured to the motherboard by screwing down the provided retention bracket. Finally the fans can be attached to the cooler. We are not entirely convinced that the fan mounting mechanism is ideal as it never feels completely secure. The fans can quite easily come out of place and they can't be moved upwards on the cooler to make more room for RAM heatspreaders. We decided to use a powerful X79 system to test the cooler so we could really push it to its limits. This consisted of an Intel Core i7-3930K processor in conjunction with the impressive ASRock X79 Extreme11 motherboard. We overclocked the CPU to 4.4 GHz using a core voltage of 1.25V. Test System Processor: Intel Core i7-3930K Motherboard: ASRock X79 Extreme11 Memory: 16 GB Mushkin Redline 2133 MHz Thermal Paste: Arctic Cooling MX-2 Graphics Card: AMD Radeon HD 7950 Graphics Card (noise tests): HIS Radeon HD 5550 Silence Chassis: Silverstone Temjin TJ04-E For our temperature tests we set both fans to maximum and loaded the system for 15 minutes using Prime 95. We then restarted the system and left it idling at the desktop for 15 minutes before recording temperatures. Room temperature was maintained at 20 degrees Celsius for the duration of the tests. As you can see the TPC 800 can just handle the i7-3930K when overclocked/overvolted and runs much hotter than the Corsair H100. While the temperatures recorded are on the high side, this test is designed to stress the CPU to the limit and in most scenarios the temperatures won't reach this level. You could also improve the thermal results by using high performance fans, rather than quiet models. In our noise level tests we switched off all the case fans so we are just taking into account the noise generated by the fans themselves. Even though the TPC 800 is only a heatsink and doesn't come with fans, we decided to test the noise level performance anyway. We observed the noise level of our test system with the TPC 800 installed and the noise level was below the 30 dBA minimum sensitivity of our sound level meter. Overall we are left with generally positive impressions of the Cooler Master TPC 800 CPU cooler. It's good to see Cooler Master offering a version of the TPC 812 cooler without fans for those enthusiasts who prefer to use their own high brand, aftermarket fans. We tested the cooler with two Be Quiet! Shadow Wings 120mm fans which performed well, offering good airflow and low noise levels. It's clear that the TPC 800 is ideal for those who want to achieve moderate overclocks with their system. The temperatures we recorded were a little on the high side with our overclocked i7-3930K but we imagine that it would perform better with a i7-3770K or i7-2700K. The only aspect of the TPC 800 that we found disappointing was the fan mounting brackets. They may be compatible with the vast majority of fans on the market but the way they fit to the heatsink is far from ideal. The clips don't hold the fans in place very securely and they cannot be attached further up the heatsink to make room for RAM with tall heatspreaders. We couldn't find the Cooler Master TPC 800 on sale at any of the large retailers but a company called Ballicom International are advertising it for around £43 inc. VAT. We feel this is a little expensive as most people will be spending around £15 or £20 on fans for the cooler which brings the price into Noctua NH-D14 territory. We would like to see the price dropping to around £30 before recommending it hands down. Pros Good performance. Compatible with most fans. Attractive design. Cons Expensive. Not yet widely available in the UK. KitGuru says: A good cooler but expensive considering the performance.

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Cooler Master TPC 800 CPU Cooler Review

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