Here at Techangel, we would like to begin by thanking Thermaltake for supplying this Heatsink & Fan to us to review. We appreciate that the items sent to us for review cost money, but we do not allow this to influence our decisions. However, please check out their website at www.thermaltake.com as they have an excellent reputation for quality hardware.

Thermaltake is widely recognised as a company known for excellent cooling solutions. They provide superior finished, performance enhancing goods which are good value for money. As we enter the world of the hardcore hobbyist (you know, the ones who don't mind compromising with a little extra cost for an increase in performance) TT provides an excellent alternative to Intel's Stock P4 Fan.

Official Specs

P/N A1258-S Fan Dimension 70x70x25 mm Rated Voltage 12VDC Started Voltage 5VDC Power Input 8.4W FAN Speed 6000±10% RPM Air Pressure 4.08mm- H2O Max. Air Flow 49.4CFM Noise 43dBa Rated Current 0.70AMP Bearing System 2 Ball bearing Life Time 50,000 hours Connector 3 PIN Thermal Resistance Ca= 0.29°C/W

Packaging
First appearences count. When you aren't sure what you want, it's nice to see what is available. It seems that this is the first thing that attracts us to this HSF. Instead of just plonking it in a box, this baby has been set in a clear plastic bubble pack, which means we can see all the bits that makes it up. Look out, TT Boy - I'm a'coming!

Box design

The Dragon itself

There's a funny rectangular bit of plastic, containing only air in this box. There is a new revision of the Dragon that includes, in this space, the speed selector switch seen on the Volcano7+ cooler.

Design The Dragon478 is made of a solid copper core, surrounded by a large radial fin structure. On top of this is the fan unit, which (also surrounded by fins) clips on top of the base. The clipping method doesn't seem the most secure of things, but does the job. The copper base The fan unit

Fitting
Fitting this unit was as easy as fitting the stock Intel Fan, and removal of it was just as easy. the holding cradle was very similar to the Intel Stock, but there seemed to be a little more "give" in the plastic of the Dragon 478. The standard thermal material on the Dragon was most acceptable for standard use, though it was later removed when I started overclocking tests.

Testing
The Dragon 478 was tested using the following equipment.

MSI 645 Ultra Motherboard
Intel Retail Boxed 1.9MHz Processor
Kingston PC2700 Spec PC333 MHz CL2.5 RAM
MSI GeForce 4 TI/MX 440 AGP Graphics Card
IBM Deathstar 60Gb Hard Disk Drive

Windows 98SE (Stable Edition, that should be, not Second Edition) was used to run the tests.

Results

Conclusion
The Dragon 478 is a phenomenal piece of kit. If you're overclocking on a budget, it is a must. If you were, like me, running a stock chip getting errors, then you could really do with one of these. Looks good, easy to install, does the job, excellent price. What more could you want? ThermalTake have continued to contain the fan within the heatsink. This provides excellent cooling, but the "hardcore" overclockers may find this restrictive - Who doesn't want to stick a Delta fan on everything? (or maybe it's just me?)

I am prepared to go out on a limb and say that this heatsink and fan is the #1 available pound for pound, dollar for dollar, euro for euro. There are better heatsinks and fans available, but if you needed to get better than this I'd assume you were an avid overclocker willing to spend double the money - in which case - watch out for the next socket478 HSF from ThermalTake...

PROS:
Easy to install, and also remove.
Aesthetically pleasing (for modders with windows, this is important)
Excellent quality of the construction and finish
Good performance increase
Very good value for money

CONS:
Not for the *obsessive* overclocker
Thermal materials could be better

Related:
ThermalTake homepage.
Product Datasheet.