The Thermalright Ultima-90 is a surprisingly good cooler, made even more attractive by the smaller size, lighter weight, and lower price tag than most of the top air coolers tested at AnandTech. In virtually every measurement the Ultima-90 was at least the equal of all the top-tier coolers, matching or outperforming the Tuniq 120, Thermalright Ultra-120, Scythe Infinity with push-pull fans, and the Scythe Ninja Plus B/OCZ Vindicator running a high output SilenX IXTREME fan.
At this point in time, Thermalright seems to have an excellent handle on how to design heatpipe towers that perform at the top of the performance charts. Now we can also add that they apparently know what to do to make a cooler smaller and lighter without giving up too much in performance. The Ultima-90 weighs only 460g, but it uses the same heatpipe setup as the much larger Ultra-120 eXtreme. That heatpipe arrangement of six staggered full loops creating twelve risers appears to be the key to the performance of both the eXtreme and this new Ultima-90.
The Ultima-90 is ideal wherever you want to use a high-performance cooler. Its smaller size and weight make it particularly well-suited to tight cases and motherboards with limited clearance around the CPU. It is also shorter than most top coolers, with a height of just 139mm. However, this is still not small enough for thin rack cases, a very small HTPC case, or a case that places the power supply above the CPU socket. The lower cost of the Ultima-90 will also be attractive to many buyers, with a retail price of $50 compared to other top coolers in the $65 to $80 range. You will still have to add a fan, but that can be as little as $5 to as much as $20 or more depending on your choice.
Thermalright advertises the Ultima-90 as a 90mm body with 120mm cooling power. That is certainly a fair description, because the Ultima-90 is designed to mount a 120mm or 92mm fan. It certainly performs best with a 120mm fan, but if you want to keep the cooler very compact it performs nearly as well with a quiet, high-output 92mm fan like the Panaflo H1A. If you choose the 92mm you will only give up a small amount of headroom at the top, and cooling in the overlap speeds is almost identical.
The Ultima-90 is not the best air cooler we have tested. That distinction still belongs to big brother Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme. Where the Ultima-90 carries our CPU to a stable 3.90 GHz, the eXtreme pushes it to 3.94 GHz. The eXtreme also manages a few degrees better cooling than the Ultima-90 at higher overclocks. However, in all other respects the performance of both coolers is all but the same. The Ultra-120 eXtreme is bigger, heavier and costs about $65 retail, where Ultima-90 costs about $50. However, the Ultra-120 eXtreme remains the better performer. You will need to decide which attributes are most important to you. Beyond the Ultra-120 eXtreme, we do not know of an air cooler that outperforms the Ultima-90. Several other top models match its performance, but they don't outperform it.
We asked in the beginning of this review if the smaller and lighter Thermalright Ultima-120 might be too compromised compared to other top coolers from Thermalright, Tuniq, Scythe, and others. After running it though our cooling tests we can only conclude that Thermalright made the right choices in the design of the Ultima-90 to make it the smallest and lightest air cooler we have tested that is still able to deliver top-of-the-line performance. At a price of $50 or less you even get some savings compared to the very best Ultra-120 eXtreme. We are pleased to have the smaller, lighter Thermalright Ultima-90 as a new choice for air cooling. Choice is good, even at the top, and the Ultima-90 will not disappoint you with its performance.
Quem mais senão a Thermalright?..
Cumps.
