Intro

Cooler Master has been around for quite a while now as anybody that works with computer hardware could tell you. Unlike the name may imply they make more than just cooling equipment. Cases and power supplies are also in their repertoire of products among other things. Today, however, we will be dealing with one of their cooling products... the Vortex TX CPU cooler.

Specs

Package

The Vortex TX is a new addition to the Cooler Master line of CPU coolers. It is packaged in a plastic bubble pack that securely holds the cooler in place. Inside the package is the cooler, the mounting brackets for various configurations and all the necessary hardware. It is designed to fit a wide variety of CPU's and therefore there is a lot of additional hardware packaged with this cooler.

The Cooler

Constructed of solid copper with 184 cooling fins arranged in a spiral pattern and topped with a clear 92mm fan makes for an attractive cooler. Mounted to the top of these fins is the clear 92mm fan.

The fan is not the type you would typically find on the average cooler but rather it has a round housing that mounts to a clear plastic bracket pressed onto the top of the fins. Removing the fan required releasing four plastic clips that are part of the mounting bracket and I had to be very careful so as not to break them. Removing the mounting bracket proved to require more force than would have been prudent and probably would have resulted in breaking the bracket so I just left it on for the pictures. One other thing you will notice about the fan is that while the connector resembles the typical three pin motherboard connector, it actually has four pins. This is because it is designed to work with motherboards with PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) fan speed control. It will however work on mobo's with three pin connectors, you just won't have full control over fan speed.

On the base is a label to protect it from damage. Upon removal of the label I found the finish on the base was a bit disappointing. It was very dull and I'm sure it would benefit from lapping and polishing. While it is no light weight at 440 grams without the fan it is not extremely heavy for an all copper cooler.