Installation and Operation:
Before setting up the Thermalright Ultra-120 for installation, it was posed with a few other coolers for a size comparison. The below left image shows two coolers that will be pitted head-to-head against the Ultra-120, the stock Intel cooler and the Scythe Mine (Ultra-120 in the middle). You can see it is a pretty big fella, and by the published specifications it is even a few millimeters taller than the Tuniq Tower 120. The below right image shows a comparison to another cooler from Thermalright's "120" series. The SI-120 is shown with the Ultra-120, and except for being shiny silver heatpipe coolers, they don't seem to share much in common.
 
With the fan vibration reducing strips mounted near the edge of the cooler, it was time for a dry run installation. The two fan mounting clips are inserted into small holes on the side of the cooler and the spring steel can be stretched to lock into the screw holes in the corners of the fan.
This type of fan mounting clip is common with Thermalright coolers, but I wasn't as impressed with this version as I have been with others in the past. The first issue was getting them to stay connected to the cooler. I looked at the instruction sheet, worked the wire into the holes indicated, but didn't really have confidence that it was right. It just didn't seem secure, and when one wiggled free by just putting the cooler down, the confidence dropped more. The fan was not yet installed, and when one was added that issue didn't leave my mind, but it seemed to be resolved as the tension created by the fan seemed to increase the reliability of the interface between the mounting clips and the cooler. At this point though, a new issue came to light.
The new issue was that these clips don't work with all fans, and even fans that are compatible again lower my confidence in the design. You need to have a fan that has open area between the upper and lower screw hole found in any given corner. Some of the nicer fans have solid plastic from top to bottom, fully eliminating them from use here. I found two fans that seemed like good choices (both with open corners), a Cooler Master LED fan (low speed) and a Delta black fan (high speed).
Although the design of the Cooler Master fan seemed ideal for use, the clips did not stay on reliably. One corner kept slipping off, and even though the fan never fell off the cooler, it did make me nervous. The system was perfectly still, so any kinds of bumping or shaking could shake the three remaining clips loose and send the fan into your case with ease.
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