Introduction
Founded in 2001 and headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan. Thermalright is a company specialized in manufacturing of cooling system such as: coolers for CPUs and Graphics cards, heatsinks for RAM modules and motherboards. The products are oriented towards gamers and overclocking enthusiasts.
Official product link:
http://thermalright.com/product/true-spirit-140-direct/
Packaging and accessories
The cooler is packaged in a black & red cardboard box, that it has the following dimensions: 15.2 cm (L) 11.75 cm (W) and 18.6 (H).
The front side is simple, here a general image of the cooler is used while on the lower part the name of the cooler is present alongside the name and logo of the manufacturer.
On the sides the accessories included with the cooler are listed. On the upper part, there is the name of the cooler and the slogan of the manufacturer.
The back side of the packaging presents the specifications of the cooler alongside the name and emblem of the manufacturer. The specifications are presented in three different languages.
The interior packaging used by Thermalright includes soft foam to dampen the impacts and the individual packaging of each component in plastic bags.
Accessories
The product comes with the following accessories:
– 1x Manual
– 8x Rubber fan mounts
– 5x M3 L6 screws
– 5x M3 L10 screws
– 4x AMD washers
– 4x Intel washers
– 4x Fan clips
– 4x LGA 2011 pillars
– 4x Scew nuts
– 3x M3 L7 screws
– 1x LGA 1151 CPU support plate
– 1x LGA 775 spacer
– 1x Mounting plate
– 1x Backplate
– 1x Backplate mylar film
– 1x Packet of thermal grease
– 1x Instruction book
– 1x Pair of gloves
– 1x 140 mm fan
– 1x Heatsink
Specifications
Model: True Spirit 140 Direct
Colors Available: Black
TDP: 200W
Supported sockets:
Intel: LGA775, LGA1150, LGA1151, LGA1155, LGA1156, LGA1366, LGA2011, LGA2011-3
AMD: AM2, AM2+, AM3, AM3+, FM1, FM2, FM2+
Heatsink:
Materials:
– Fins: Aluminum
– Heatpipes & Base: Pure nickel-plated copper
Dimensions (L x W x H): 140 mm x 68.5 mm x 161 mm (w/fan)
Heatpipes: Ø6 mm – 5pcs
Weight: 760 g
Fan(s):
Model: TY 140 PWM Black
Dimensions(mm): 152 mm x 140 mm x 26.5 mm
Fan Speed: 300~1300RPM (PWM controlled)
Fan Airflow: 73.5 CFM
Static Air Pressure: 0.08 ~ 1.56 mmH²O
Fan Noise: 21 dBA
Bearing type: Enhanced Hyper-Flow Bearing
Voltage Range: 5 – 13 V
Connector: 4-Pin PWM
Weight: 160g
Features:
– HDT design offers 4 mm better clearance than True Spirit 140 BW Rev. A
– TS use the principle of Heat pipe direct touch, provides seamless thermal conduction between the heat sink and CPU.
– Aluminum heat sinks with our latest design to accelerate airflow to increase the efficiency of the fan.
– Offset base for better VGA card and memory clearance.
– Black top to complement build aesthetics and heat pipes nickel plated.
– Including one Thermalright TY-140 Black Utra-low noise 300~1300RPM PWM-Fan (MAX21 dBA).
– Fan-clips are compatible with both 140mm and 120mm fan.
Visual inspection
The Thermalright True Spirit 140 Direct utilizes a single-tower design, which features 48 aluminum made fins and five nickel-plated copper heatpipes, each has a diameter of 6mm. The cooler has a cooling capacity of 200W and is equipped with a single 140mm fan, model: TY 140 PWM with a maximum speed of 1300RPM.
A change compared to the base model True Spirit 140 BW Rev. A, is the overall height of the heatsink, in this case being approximately 4mm shorter due to the new HDT base, which integrates the heatpipes in its surface.
The True Spirit 140 Direct model uses 5 heatpipes each with a diameter of 6mm; these are arranged in a U shape to facilitate heat transfer and dissipation. In addition, the heatpipes are made out of nickel-plated copper and are integrated into the surface of the cooler’s base.
The base of the cooler is made out of nickel plated copper, in addition the heatpipes are integrated within it, and thus make direct contact with the surface of the processor.
The included fan in the package is manufactured by Thermalright and is model: TY 140 PWM Black, it has a speed rated between 300 RPM and 1300 RPM. The fan features a PWM function and frame adapted for mounting on a 120mm fan slot, even though the fan itself is 140mm.
Testing
The following system was used to test the cooler:
– Processor: Intel i5 4690K @ 3.9 GHz and overclocked to 4.5 GHz
– Motherboard: MSI Z97 Gaming 9 ACK
– RAM: Crucial Ballistix Tactical 8GB DDR3 @ 2133MHz
– GPU: GeForce GTX 1070 Founder’s Edition
– SSD: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB
– HDD: Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB
– PSU: Antec Edge 550W Gold
– Display: AOC i2769VM
– Case: Phanteks Enthoo Luxe White
– Thermal compound: Arctic Cooling MX-4
Software used for testing the cooler:
– AIDA64 Extreme Version: 5.92.4300 (06/19/2017)
– Intel Burn Test v2.54
– Prime95 29.1
The cooler was tested with the CPU at the default turbo frequency of 3.9 GHz and overclocked to 4.5 GHz with a core voltage of 1.187 V.
Also, the included fans have been used at their maximum speed.
The room temperature was approximately 26°C (78°F), with 2°C margin of error.
The idle test consists of the CPU sitting idle at the desktop for 30 minutes, the temperature was measured at the end of the test.
The settings of the software used are the following:
Intel Burn Test v2.54 – Stress level: Maximum
Prime95 29.1- small FFT
AIDA64 Extreme Version – Temperature monitoring.
Each test was conducted for 40 minutes.
The test results are as follows:
Idle
Full Load
The noise level was measured at three different distances from the fans (10cm, 20cm, 30cm.) the noise was measured with a margin of error of ± 5 db.
Final thoughts
The Thermalright True Spirit 140 Direct cooler is one of the quietest coolers tested so far, due to its included 140mm fan. The performance of the cooler is good despite the size of the heatsink and the RAM compatiblity is excellent, the fan does not reach the DIMM slots.
The mounting system is simple, the backplate is made out of metal and is used with a plastic cover to protect the motherboard. The clips that hold the fan use a system that requires four rubber washers, without them the clips do not generate enough pressure on the fan to be able to hold it safely on the heatsink.
The True Spirit 140 Direct model although offers excellent RAM compatibility, the cooler is very close to the graphics card and the first PCIe 2.0 slot is covered completely.
