OCZ Gladiator II Review Posted
by Mike @ 11:30
P.M. on 03/08/03
Background
Our last reviews
of OCZ's products gave us a pretty good impression of their
heatsinks. We found the Dominator II to be a very good heatsink,
but it was plagued with a noisy fan and used a base made
of aluminum rather than copper. OCZ Technology looked to
improve upon these points with their Gladiator II. Not only
did they make the base of copper, but they also included
a slightly different fan.
The included
fan no longer requires so much power that it be run off
of your 12V line, instead it easily plugs into the motherboard's
fan headers (like all fans should). The Gladiator's fan
only spins 300 RPMs lower (in our testing), but sounds slightly
quieter than the Dominator's. Of course, any 60mm fan that
spins at 7000 RPMs is still quite noisy.
The base could use some more lapping, you
can feel the bumps with your fingernail.
The area that
OCZ really improved over the Dominator is the base. Instead
of an aluminum base, a pure copper base was used in order
to dissipate heat quicker. Unfortunately, the same lapping
process was not used with the two bases. The copper base
on the Gladiator is not quite as smooth as the Dominator.
In fact, you can feel tiny bumps by running your fingernail
over the bottom.
Two columns of 58 pure copper fins ready
to cool your processor.
The base also
includes 12 more fins then that of the Dominators, bringing
the total up to 58 pure copper fins. This brings a big advantage
to this heatsink, allowing more surface area to disappaite
heat. Being pure copper, the weight of the heatsink definitely
increases.
Despite the
extra weight, OCZ decided to use a one-hole clip instead
of a tri-hole. The heatsink is still quite secure, but we
would have liked to see the tri-hole clip. The clip also
lacks a thumbhandle, and instead includes a slot for a screwdriver.
Although we had no problems, using a screwdriver to exert
force over the motherboard must be done very carefully to
avoid breaking anything.
Specifications
Socket A up
to XP 3100+
Supports all Socket 370 cpu's
Single piece construction
Pure copper
Dimensions: 62x10x69mm (fan installed)
Delta 60x25mm (7000 rpm, 39.5cfm)
