Thermalright Ultima 90I CPU Cooler

Masters of heatpipes and large, sexy coolers, to not have at least heard of Thermalright is akin to failing to notice the sun on a hot mid-afternoon. As well seasoned veterans in the battlefield of computer cooling, any die hard enthusiast can immediately point to Thermalright's Ultra-120, IFX-10, or HR-03 Plus as prime examples of the company's effective and colossal cooling solutions. While most of the coolers we see come from their mysterious laboratories generate their own gravitational field, with Thermalright's newest offering goes to show perhaps bigger isn't always better.

Presented today is the Ultima-90I, a cooler for those who find the Ultra-120's bulk unwieldy while still managing to squeeze no less then 6 heatpipes and 120mm fan support into a small(er) package. Packing most of the goodies of it's large brother with a smaller footprint, does the Ultima-90 still manage to thwart the raging fires of CPU meltdown as smoothly as it's bigger brethren, or does that monster size play a vital role in cooling the beast? We've got some high hopes for this cooler, so read on to see it put to the test.

From the weights above, the Ultima sits in the bracket for the average sized tower cooler. While lightweight, the cooler itself has ample surface area shifting it towards the larger end of the mid-sized spectrum, but we were pleasantly surprised to discover that it doesn't require it's own zipcode like it's next of kin the Ultra-120. In comparison, the Ultima is slightly  larger then the Arctic Freezers or Noctua NH-U9F towers using the 92mm fan size, yet doubling on the conventional 3 heatpipe setup of the aforementioned coolers. From this aspect we're hoping to have the killer performance of the titanic 120mm coolers in a size that keeps mounting and chassis issues to a minimal.