ThermoLab Trinity Heatsink Review

According to the ThermoLab website the Trinity is designed to provide a good cooling balance between total performance and heatsink noise.  Based on what we have seen and heard this statement is absolutely true.  There are a couple of factors that contributed to making this happen.  The first is the size and configuration of the heatsink tower.  In terms of size the Trinity is no larger than your standard tower heatsink but features a staggered heatpipe layout to promote enhanced cooling.  Cooling is then complemented by a rubber mounted 130mm fan that cools the heatsink but also blows air under the tower to cool PMW circuits around the CPU socket.

Installation was incredibly easy and only took a couple minutes to install.  We did find the thumbscrews somewhat cumbersome to install since they were located under the cooling fan.  We feel the heatsink could be installed inside a case however you may want to save yourself some time and remove the motherboard for easy access.

Overall performance was quite good though given the design we were expecting more, especially considering the 200w rating.  However while C/W numbers did rise at the 150w mark the Trinity does have some key design points that will make it an excellent OEM replacement for Sandy Bridge systems.  As we mentioned before Core Contact designs are very quick when responding to heat load spikes meaning that heat from rapid changes in turbo frequency will not multiply and keep the processor cooler than if you were using a more traditional cooler design.  More constant heat loads under overclocking will have a different heat profile, but as we have shown it can handle 4.7Ghz on the 2600K and still run cooler than OEM at stock speeds.

Core Contact Design
Quiet Fan Design
Staggered Heatpipes
Cooling Fan Included
Easy to Install

4 heatpipe design
Limited mass at heatsink base
More powerful fan could improve temps