Thermalright have been making enthusiast cooling products for quite a few years now and while their coolers were usually large with a high price tag, enthusiasts loved them. After all, they are widely regarded in creating some of the best air coolers available. Thermalright became famous through their early processor coolers, which mainly were the AX-7 and SLK series, but they later began to offer coolers for other computer components, such as VGA and Chipset coolers. Today we will take a look at a massive cooling body designed to keep the Core 2 Duo processors cool, the SI-128. The SI-128 is the natural evolution of the SI-120, which was a great cooler for both Athlon 64 and early socket 775 processors. Its basic design is the same, but the size of the heat dissipation area is much larger.

Manufacturer specifications:

Technical Spec:
• Dimensions: L125 x W145 x H91.5 mm (heatsink only)
• Weight: 510g (heatsink only)
• Recommended Fan: All 120mm Fan

Features:
• 120mm fan recommended for maximum cooling capability.
• Huge 8mm multiple heatpipes for even more efficient heat transfer to the aluminum fins.
• Multiple tightly gapped fins for more surface area with longer and wider wingspan than SI-120.
• Vast compatibility across multiple platforms for newest AMD and Intel CPUs.
• Enormous wingspan gives extra cooling to MOSFET or NB chipset.
• Includes adapters for LGA775, K8, and AM2 platforms

Packaging and bundle

While most people would expect an interesting package to be the home for a 45 Euro cooler Thermalright have kept it simple. Like all Thermalright packages, it is nothing more than a thick brown cardboard box with the Thermalright logo on it in fact you can only discern which cooler is inside it by reading the model number at its side. Everything is very well packed inside the box, held in place and protected by Styrofoam and nylon wraps. Their packages may be rather crude, but they are highly effective.

The bundle of the SI-128 is minimal. Most people wouldn’t believe that Thermalright designed such a massive cooler and it needs not a single screw to be mounted! Thermalright include three retention brackets, one for socket 775, one for socket 939/754 and another which is an adapter for socket AM2. Also included is a small manual with installation instructions for all sockets. Finally there is a Thermalright sticker with their brand logo, which is approximately six times larger than a case badge.

There is a single word which can easily describe the SI-128; huge. The whole body of the heatsink is silver, but that is simply paint as it is made out of copper. The SI-128 follows the same design principals as the previous SI series coolers except it is larger. There is only a small slab of copper with a perfectly machined bottom serving as its base. Four large heatpipes move from the base to the main body of the cooler, which is elevated a few centimeters above the base, transferring the heat generated by the processor away from it and dissipate it to the air. Some people call this design ‘dry watercooling’ and that is somewhat true, let me explain. Thermalright used a small copper slab as a waterblock, the heatpipes and gas as tubes and water respectively and finally a large body as a radiator. That was a quite clever idea which proved to be rather effective with the previous SI series coolers, but this is a far larger cooler designed for much hotter processors, so things may change.

Installation

The installation of the SI-128 was unexpectedly simple for a cooler of this size. You won’t even have to remove the motherboard from the case, if you don’t want to. The retention bracket for the socket 775 emulates the mounting design of the stock cooler, so you will just have to place the cooler on the CPU and press the plastic clips into the holes. Yes, that 20 seconds move is all that you will have to do in order to install the SI-128 on a socket 775 processor. Mounting on the socket 754/939 processors is similar. The only socket which you will need a screwdriver to install the SI-128 is the AM2, where you will have to remove the stock retention bracket and replace it with the provided AM2 adapter by removing the 4 screws that hold it in place. The cooler may be massive in terms of size, however since the main body is elevated high above the base it shouldn’t cause installation problems on the majority of the motherboards. After installing the cooler, you will have to attach the fan retention clips and the silicon anti-vibration pads on it. Finally, you place the 120mm fan of your selection on the cooler and secure it with the clips.