Hardware Thermalright Archon SB-E X2 Review

Thermalright's Archon SB-E X2 is here to show us that there's still life in air coolers yet.
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cooling/2013/04/03/thermalright-archon-sb-e-x2-review/1

 

What a brilliant performance... but it's MASSIVE!

For those who don't need the few degrees Celsius premium I'd still recommend a Corsair Hydro at a similar price point.

 

Thermalright cooler reviews are boring, because the name alone says it all. They just don't produce crap, do they?

 

Is it me or is the cooler VERY close to the back of the GPU in your photo of the 2011 rig?

Any GPU's with backplates will clash won't they?

 

Great review and a great performance, but why does it have to be such an awful colour? Why can't they at least offer plain black fans if they don't want to get in to the various colour ranges?
Even without a case with a window it would bug the hell out of me knowing that was in there.

 

Impressive, so aircooling isn't as dead as often said

Shame the Macho isn't in the testing list, would have been nice to see it compared to this one

Anyway, a question:

Threy're all thumbscrews, what wrench?

 

Excuse me if I'm wrong but I think Matthew was referring to Thermalright's Pressure Vault Bracket System:

 

After having tested some AIO watercoolers I'm aswell back to good old aircooling, as a good aircooler is allmost as good and in most cases more silent actually.

Other badass-aircoolers that can compete with a Corsair H100 are the Phanteks PH-TC14PE or the Silverstone Heligon HE01 for example.

 

Speaking of which, why wasn't the Phanteks PH-TC14PE in the test when it is mentioned in the conclusion? I know you can't compare every cooler but it does offer better performance while offering the colour options as mentioned. If you needed to cut down the table surely we do not need to see all 3 settings for the water coolers.

 

Bleh, not enough of a difference to make me change out my Tranquillo. I'll keep saving for a Kraken then I guess.

 

+1

Consistently outstanding design and build quality.

 

I reckon horrible coloured fans have been adopted as a mark of quality in the cooler market. The fan colours and the clips they're using here look a lot like the Noctua coolers I had

 

Yup, which has a thumbscrew right smack in the middle of it, firdt page, last picture.

AHa, the central pressure thingy is a thumbscrew, but the plate holding it has bolts.

 

Seriously? It's been a little while since I've needed to get into my case, and I couldn't even tell you what color fans I have in there at all, HSF or case fans.

I'm not arguing your main point, though - they are pretty heinous. Slightly better than than the weird fleshy tones of Noctua fans, but not much.

 

Even with its vast enormity it still looks smaller than my Frio, might be time to trade the ole' dog out.

 

Ah, thought it might be too obvious. So the plate holding the new Pressure System down is what BT were on about re: the wrench - mystery solved

 

Still using my IFX-14 with 2 x TY140 fans running at minimum speed. Keeps my Q9650 in the low 50's while running BF3. If I had to replace it it would be with another Thermalright product.

 

i have a silver arrow, so does this one slot above it or below it in terms of performance? can't really tell.
Anyway thermalright do indeed make quality producs, but i'm going to echo others in that i don't understand why they can't just make black fans? i actually replaced the TY on my cooler with corsair SP fans just because of that.

 

I pick my products based on performance and not on aesthetics.

 

I agree, another awful beige fan