Thermaltake Volcano 11+ Xaser Edition HSF Review

 

Thermaltake has been changing ever so quickly this year with the introduction of new products, a new division, and a revised Thermaltake slogan that who wouldn’t think that Thermaltake means business?

Thermaltake’s latest creation is their all-new Thermaltake Volcano 11+ Xaser Edition CPU cooler. Will all the hype surrounding it do justice?

The Thermaltake Volcano 11+ Xaser Edition arrived to us in a Thermaltake cardboard sample box. Opening the box presented me with the box of the 11+ that has a purple colour scheme.

Taking everything out of the box, I was surprised to see many items.

  • Volcano 11+ Cooler
  • 5.25" Drive bay fan controller
  • PCI Slot fan controller
  • Probe sensor controller
  • Thermal grease
  • Thermal tape
  • Screws
  • 3-pin to 4-pin MOLEX connector
  • Instructions

Specifications

  • Fan Dimension 80x80x25 mm
  • Heatsink Dimension 70x66x30.8 mm
  • Rated Voltage 12V
  • Started Voltage 6VD
  • Rated Current 0.20AMP ~ 0.70AMP AID Management
  • Power Input 2.40W ~ 8.40W
  • Fan Speed 1300 ±10% RPM at 20°C ~
  • 4800 ±10% RPM at 55°C
  • Max. Air Flow 20.55 CFM at 20°C~
  • Max. Air Pressure 1.45mm-H2O at 20°C~
  • 8.43mm-H2O at 55°C
  • Noise 17 dB at 1300 rpm
  • 48 dB at 4800 rpm
  • Bearing Type Two Ball Bearing
  • Life Time 50,000 hours
  • Interface Material Thermal Grease (Dow Corning T340)
  • Connector 3 PIN

There was one thing in that caught my attention. The Volcano 11+ was not covered or even protected inside the cardboard box. It was just left to swing around during shipping in the box. This resulted in the base being scratched and some hardware being messy. I would like Thermaltake to take more care of their future heatsinks and provide a plastic cover for the base at least such as Spire products and other manufactures do.

The Thermaltake Volcano 11+ comes packaged with a PCI Slot bay fan controller that allows you to manually change the speed of the fan. If that wasn’t enough, Thermaltake also includes another fan controller this time fitting an empty 5.25” drive bay. This is an excellent idea and gives you the best of both worlds for your needs and preference. If for some reason you do not want to change the fans manually, Thermaltake includes a automatic fan adjuster that adjust the fan speed depending on the temperature of the CPU via thermal probe. Just simply connect the probes connector to the right connector and place the probe itself near the side of the CPU die with the supplied thermal tape. Thermaltake gives you flexibility on the options of cooling methods.

Controller in

Probe in (I used a plastic to protect the base myself :) )

Probe again

Thermaltake utilizes a radical fan grill, however it impedes airflow and raises the fan noise a bit.

The Volcano 11+ uses a 3-prong clip that is strong and has a slug for you to place your screwdriver.

Looking at the heatsink itself, it has great construction and is made from pure copper ensuring heat will be dissipated away effectively as copper is the best heat dissipater aside from aluminum. There are 40 fins in total soldered on to the copper and the heatsink itself weighs in at a hefty 476 grams.

 

I have to say honestly the Thermaltake Volcano 11+’s base is one of the worst finished bases I have seen aside from the Akasa AK824CU CPU cooler. There are machine marks throughout the base and are scratches due to the poor protection. Without a doubt, the base needs some major lapping. I hope Thermaltake will take care of this problem in future products they will carry.

Thermaltake chooses to go with their 80mm Smart Fan II. The Smart Fan II pumps out a maximum of 75.70 CFM’s of massive air at 4800 RPMS. You will here all 48 dBA’s of noise from the fan at full speed. However, you can tune down the fan speed but will suffer the performance lost. I have to say that the fan is one of the loudest fans I’ve heard in the reviews I have conducted second the Delta fan on the Dynatron cooler.

Here is a movie of what I am talking about. The fan goes from slow, medium and high speed. WMP 9 required (392KB)

Testing

Testing will consist of idle temperatures and load temperatures of Toast and UT 2003. It’s the same routine from day one. Arctic Silver 3 was used for testing and was set in for a 72-hour period. All temperatures were on the high-speed fan setting.  The ambient air temperature was kept around 22-25c because of the hot summer. 

Results

Thermaltake Volcano 11+ (High Speed)
Idle (30 mins): 33c
Load: UT 2003 (1-Hour): 43c
Toast (5 mins): 45c

Conclusion

The Thermaltake Volcano 11+ Xaser Edition is an okay cooler in my opinion with upsides and downsides. The upsides are that the cooling is good but could have been better. Thermaltake has provided all the cooling options you can want and the 3-prong clip is very good. On the other hand, the base is horrible and affects temperatures. Also the fan guard impedes airflow and increases noise. I took off the existing fan guard and used a regular fan guard and that shaved off 2-3 degrees and was quieter than before by a bit.

Look at all that space effective air couldn't go through

Looks better

For the price of the Thermaltake Volcano 11+ Xaser Edition, do I think it is worth it? The answer is no. The cooling doesn’t justify the price and their needs to be improvement before I can recommend it.

I rate the Thermaltake Volcano 11+ Xaser Edition CPU cooler a…

7/10!

Pros and Cons

+ 3 options cooling
+ Visually pleasing
+ 3-Prong clip
+ Construction
- Packaging protection
- Base needs some serious lapping
- Loud!
- Pricey

I would like to thank Thermaltake for making this review possible.

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