There certainly isn’t a shortage of CPU coolers on the market, and they come in all shapes and sizes. They range from hard core coolers the size of a small house to inexpensive options for those on a budget. However, there are coolers designed for special purposes and applications. The NorthQ 3390A fits into this category. Measuring just 27mm tall, it is designed to properly cool a socket 939 CPU inside the smallest of PC cases, such as the Hiper Media Center case. People who build custom systems and cases will find good use for this cooler due to the looks, so it has a lot of potential to begin with.

Specifications:

• Cooler Dimension: 119 x 91 x 27 mm
• Fan Dimension: 60 x 60 x 10 mm
• Rated Voltage: 12 V
• Fan speed: 1500 - 2800RPM +- 10%
• Noise Level : 12 - 17dB
• Air Flow: 16 - 28CFM
• Bearing Type: Ball bearing
• Life Time: 50,000 Hours
• Connector: 3-Pin Fan controller with build-in FAN alarm included
• Total Weight: 250 g

The NorthQ 3390A media center cooler can be installed only on socket 754/939 based motherboards. This is absolutely logical as the cooling capacity of the cooler is considerably limited and it would be almost impossible for it to maintain a hot Prescott core CPU even on stock voltages and clocks. The single core Athlon 64 processors with cool & quiet enabled are certainly a more reasonable choice.

The cooler is exceptionally short in height, to the point that it looks much more like a video card cooler than a CPU cooler. One can instantly realize that the 3390A is entirely made from copper, it follows the proven design of a solid base with many fins expanding outwards. The base of the cooler has an excellent, mirror like finish on the sample which we received. The small 60mm fan can rotate as fast as 2800RPM while remaining entirely silent at approximately 17dBA.

Along with the cooler you will receive a small, but effective bundle. First of all, there is a small illustrated manual with installation instructions. Nothing too special, but they are comprehensive enough to help everyone to install the cooler. There is also a retention bracket which you have to replace the stock bracket with in order to install the cooler, along with the necessary screws and a little bit of simple thermal grease. Finally there is a special fan speed controller, which has a built-in alarm. The (loud) alarm will instantly go off if the fan stops working. A nice safety measure, although we tend to prefer the emergency shut-down features from inside the BIOS of the motherboard more.

While the NorthQ 3390A is certainly very short, it also is wider than most coolers out there. Motherboards with the DIMM slots near the CPU socket could certainly prove to be an issue. As you can see, on the DFI LanParty Ultra-D, the 4th DIMM slot is unusable. Be extra careful before purchase and check your DIMM slots, because if they are too close to the CPU socket you will probably not be able to use them all. Installing the cooler is fairly simple. You only have to replace the stock retention bracket with the bracket that NorthQ provides. Then you simply have to place the cooler on the CPU and screw it on the bracket, using the provided screws.