I have been real fortunate lately; our regular heatsink guru, Hojo, decided it was time for him and his family to relocate so I have been picking up some of the heatsinks that would normally go to him. I've had a pretty good run of heatsinks lately; first I did the Asetek Vapochill Micro family which impressed me, then I received the Zalman CNPS9500 which impressed me even more with it's unique design and cooling ability. After that I had a pair of heatsinks that weren't so good, but that doesn't matter now since the Big Typhoon has landed squarely on my motherboard. Big? Yes. Impressive? Yes. New favorite? Another resounding yes.

I think I can safely say that heatpipe technology integrated into aircooling is here to stay. The heatpipe design has proven that it is the most effective way to beat the heat generated from the current generation of highly clocked single core and very hot dual core CPU's. Yes; the venerable Zalman 7000 and 7700 series of heatsinks are still options and will still keep temps manageable even under high stress situations, but if you want the best aircooling around you have to look at the new generation of hybrid coolers. As far as the new generation is concerned, the TT Big Typhoon is truly the Ron Jeremy of heatsinks.

Package

The Thermaltake Big Typhoon is packaged in the usual hanging clamshell that all the big manufacturers use today. The stores had better have some hefty hooks for this package though. Again, as usual, the packaging has bright colors to catch your eye while browsing the shelves. There is a piece of plastic foam installed between the fins and base to keep the heatpipes straight in case the package gets banged around.

Besides the heatsink and fan itself, the package included mounting options for quite a few different types of sockets. The TT Big Typhoon is compatible with Intel 775 and 478, and is also compatible with AMD K7 and K8 processors. The mounting brackets are very well machined and strong, and the instructions are detailed with good color pictures to cover each different type of installation. There isn't a fan controller included with the Big Typhoon, but TT offers alternate fans with controllers for this behemoth.