Installation:

Two test systems were assembled around the Thermalright AXP-140 for this review. One, is an Intel i7 platform (socket 1366) that resides on an open test bench. This system is used quite often for testing video cards, memory, drives, and coolers, and will be used to gauge the AXP-140's performance on a recent generation processor. The second system is based on an Intel socket 775 processor which is assembled in a HTPC chassis. The first round of testing will be conducted in open air, while the second round of testing will conducted in a closed HTPC case mounted in an entertainment center.

The first set of images will take a look at the AXP-140 installed on an Intel i7 platform with the following components:

» Intel Core i7 920 quad core 2.66GHz processor
» Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R socket 1366 X58 ATX motherboard
» Sapphire 1GB Vapor-X Radeon HD5870 video card
» OCZ Technology Agility 60GB solid state drive
» 4GB OCZ Technology Gold series PC2-6400 DDR2 memory
» Panasonic slim optical drive
» Nesteq EECS 700 Watt modular power supply
» Windows 7 Pro 64-Bit operating system
» No case

From high above the motherboard we see that the AXP-140 dominates the landscape. It overhangs the chipset and voltage regulation coolers, as well as the first memory slot. Also note that the cooler doesn't look quite square to the board. The way the cooler mounts, with a bracket effectively floating loose over the cooler's base and only centered by a slight indentation, there is some play. Even though the bracket was tightened down all the way, the cooler itself was still free to move by perhaps a millimeter or two, and to pivot by perhaps three degrees.



In the next two images we see side views of the cooler, and that even though it does overhang plenty of features, it does not interfere with them. Although not shown, the video card (when installed in the first PCI Express x16 slot) was far enough away from the cooler to not create a problem.



The second set of images will take a look at the AXP-140 installed on an Intel socket 775 platform with the following components:

» Intel D840 dual core 3.2GHz processor
» ABIT AW8D Intel 975X socket 775 ATX motherboard
» Sapphire 512MB Ultimate Radeon HD4670 video card
» Kingston Technology 40GB solid state drive
» 6GB Crucial Ballistix Tracer PC3-12800 DDR3 memory
» ASUS DVD-Rom
» Enermax Liberty 500 Watt modular power supply
» Windows 7 Pro 32-Bit operating system
» Moneual MonCaso 972S Home Theater PC case

The socket 775 retention bracket has a larger centering "knob" to better lock it in to the base of the AXP-140. That said, the cooler was still able to pivot slightly, while it was not able to be moved. In either case, with a cooler bolted down as tight as you can go, you do not want to still feel it moving. This implies that thermal transfer can't be at its best, but we'll see how the test results pan out before getting too upset.

As we see below, the cooler still clears all motherboard features and it is well short of getting close to the lid of the case. The only consideration that had to be made was for the video card... It had its own oversized heatsink, so it now had to be installed in the second PCI Express x16 slot to keep it from pushing on the CPU cooler.