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In the test 15 years ago: Thermalright's SI-128 was good, but not perfect

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After Thermalright launched a first-class CPU cooler with the SI-120 (tested 15 years ago), an improved model followed with the SI-128 (test), the cooled even better. As is typical for Thermalright, the SI-128 was sold without a fan and had a comparatively high price at 55 euros.

Table of contents

    < li> 1 Larger heat sink with narrower fins
  1. At high speeds, the SI-128
  2. Conclusion

Larger heat sink with narrower fins

The dimensions of the Thermalright SI-128 were 150 × 125 × 91.5 mm and weighed 510 g. For the model, the manufacturer used a copper base plate to absorb the waste heat from the processor and an aluminum heat sink. Four 8 mm heat pipes were used to transport heat between these two components. Compared to the SI-120, the number of slats increased from 52 to 78, while the distance between the slats fell from 1.5 to 1.0 mm.

  1. Thermalright SI- 128 Scope of delivery

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Thermalright SI-128 scope of delivery
Thermalright SI-128
Thermalright SI-128
Thermalright SI-128 with Papst fan setup
Significantly more massive compared to the predecessor (SI-120 right)
4-way 8 mm heat pipe instead of 5-way 6 -mm structure
Compatibility problems cannot be identified
Powerful contact pressure bends the mainboard

In terms of assembly, the SI-128 had some problems, at least when the cooler was to be mounted on a mainboard with a 775 socket. On the one hand, the expansive cooler covered the push pins, and on the other hand, the contact pressure of the cooler was so high that the mainboard bent under the tension. These two factors together ensured that the mainboard had to be removed from the case for the cooler installation. With boards with an AMD socket, however, there were no problems, because the retention module developed by AMD ensured simple and uncomplicated assembly.

At high speeds, the SI-128

is worthwhileIn the test, the Thermalright SI-128 and SI-120, the Scythe Ninja, the Zalman CNPS 9500 and Intel's boxed cooler had to hold their own on a hot-headed Pentium Extreme Edition 840. The idea behind the processor choice: The cooler that can cool a Pentium EE 840 can also handle an energy-saving Core 2 Duo. Due to the larger cooling surface, the SI-128 was able to set itself apart from the SI-120, especially at higher speeds. While the difference was 2 Kelvin at 496 rpm, it was 4 Kelvin at 1,145 rpm and 4 Kelvin at 1,532 rpm. Thus the Thermalright SI-128 delivered a good cooling performance, but did not come close to the Scythe Ninja. Depending on the speed, this could sit between 3 and 8 Kelvin in front of the SI-128.

CPU cooler in performance comparison Unit: ° C

Conclusion

The Thermalright SI-128 was able to convince in the test with a high cooling performance, even if it did not quite achieve the performance of the best tower coolers. But it had a decisive advantage: As a top blow cooler, components such as the voltage converters and the chipset were also cooled by the air flow facing the mainboard. These components could get very hot, especially in the case of tower coolers that were equipped with slowly rotating fans. How often should the cooler be installed and uninstalled and could problems arise from bending the mainboard? Those were the questions that owners of motherboards with an Intel socket had to ask themselves. Due to the comparatively high price of 55 euros plus the cost of a fan, the Thermalright SI-128 was not recommended 15 years ago.

In the “Tested 15 years ago” category, the editorial team has been looking into the test archive every Saturday since July 2017. The last 20 articles that appeared in this series are listed below:

Even more content of this kind and many more reports and anecdotes can be found in the retro corner of the ComputerBase forum.

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