When the name OCZ is mentioned, many computer enthusiasts would think immediately of their high quality RAM products and with good reason. As a company however they have diversified into many other areas of computer hardware including coolers and power supply units. While their power supply units have been a great success, their initial cooler releases have not really been the groundbreaking event they perhaps should have been. While they appeared to have good potential, they could not keep up to the competition in terms of performance or even value. OCZ is not the kind of company who rest on their laurels however, and so today we have their new universal “Tempest” cooler in our test labs. OCZ is obviously trying to take a piece of the enthusiast’s market with it, so let us see if they can should succeed this time.

Manufacturer specifications:
For Sockets AMD 939/940/AM2, Intel 775/478
Pure Copper base plate (Titanium coated) and 4 heat pipes for superior heat dissipation
Pure Aluminum fins for ultimate durability
Weight (w/out fan) 580g

Includes:
92mm Fan
Mounting Hardware for all above CPUs
Thermal Compound

Fan Specifications:
Low-Noise
2500RPM +/-10%
44.0 CFM
2-Ball Bearing
3 pin connector
Blue LEDs

Dimensions:
(L)95.25 x (W)87.62 x (H)51.24mm

 

Packaging and bundle

The Tempest is supplied in a nicely designed plastic package, which has a clear front and top. You can easily see the cooler and fan inside it if you were browsing in a store. Since the cooler is universal, inside the package you will find a rich bundle of retention brackets, screws and threads. Our only disappointment was the manual, which while acceptable could be a bit larger and have a little more detailed information. We would also like to see the inclusion of some good thermal grease instead of typical silicone grease.

The Cooler

The fan can be instantly separated from the main body of the cooler, since the fan’s bracket is attached to the main body with spring clips. OCZ chose a round, crystal clear blue LED fan for the Tempest. You can probably swap the fan with any 92mm fan of your choice if you want to, but the fan OCZ provides is thankfully, high quality. While quite noisy at the full rotation speed of 2500RPM, most motherboards will control the CPU fan speed and it should be rare to see (or hear) it at full load.

The cooling body of the Tempest is not extremely large, however it is certainly not small either. It is slightly larger than Intel’s stock cooler, but the design is tremendously superior. The copper base of the cooler has been nickel plated and machined down to a perfect mirror finish. No dents or scratches were visible at the base of the cooler, no matter how much one would examine the sample which we received. The four large heat pipes draw the heat from the base and quickly transfer it high, along the aluminum fins of the cooler. The fins are also welded directly to the base, so some of the heat is directly transferred from the base to the fins. The Tempest is considerably heavy, weighting over half a kg without the fan.

Installation

The installation of the Tempest is not difficult, but it requires the motherboard to be removed from the case. Then you only need to check the instructions for your CPU socket. To install the cooler on our socket 775 motherboard, we had to use the socket 775 backplate at the rear of the motherboard and attach the socket 775 bridge brackets on top of it, securing them on the motherboard. Finally, we placed the cooler on the CPU and secured it in place with two long spring screws. The blue lighting of the fan certainly makes the cooler look attractive and it is extremely bright.