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The recently released Jing CPU cooler landed at our doorstep courtesy of Thermaltake USA, so naturally a review is in order! For those wondering what the heck “Jing” means, it’s Chinese for silence! “Silent by Design” is the slogan Thermaltake has assigned to the Jing, so lets run it through the paces and see what it is capable of shall we?

About Thermaltake

From the Thermaltake Web Site:

“We live in a world where most things seem to move at the speed of light. At Thermaltake, we feel the same way and that is exactly how Thermaltake conducts itself to deliver innovative, reliable and customer-centric solutions to the worldwide market.

Since the beginning of Thermaltake in 1999, it has been at the forefront of creating new and exciting products at a time where most computer users were provided little to no choices for components that may seem irrelevant, but in reality crucial to the performance of a PC.

Thermaltake Server Series solutions, with years of thermal experience and industry leadership, sets its goal on reforming total thermal management in server segment by formulating the perfect mixture of versatility, efficiency and thermal management with each respective server product category: Rackmount Chassis, Server Fixed & Redundant Power Supply and Server CPU Cooling Management Solutions.

With its comprehensive line of products available, it enables Thermaltake’s core customers to enjoy a one-stop-shop experience, reduce product design-in evaluation period and most important of all, flawless integration process. Each of Thermaltake’s strengths enables its customer to focus on their core business while taking advantage of the skills and efficiency of a single thermal management solution partner.

Values & Principles

- While still a relatively young company, established in 1999, Thermaltake is built on unwavering will and dedication to address issues and innovate at the same time for computer enthusiasts and corporate users worldwide .

- With strong support of Research & Development team standing behind the brand, Thermaltake is committed to never-follow but always-lead.

- In past decades, the industrial and technological advancements in different fields have shaped the world we live in today and have also made a big impact on the environment. Thermaltake takes great measures to ensure the product that we produce relieve these impacts by being first to act on 80 PLUS® specification for computer power supply that greatly reduces the amount of electricity that a computer consumes.

- Always striving to be the best, we continuously benchmark our performance against the very best internally and externally.

- Customers are our greatest asset and Thermaltake does not take that for granted. That is why Thermaltake is the industry leading in customer service and customer support with around-the-clock automated product return service.”

Read on as we explore the Thermaltake Jing and just what this CPU cooler has to offer.

If you are a regular reader of Overclockers Tech then you are well aware of the numerous Thermaltake products we have reviewed thus far. To date everything they have sent for review has arrived in perfect condition which is a testament to the excellent packaging methods they use for their products. The Jing CPU cooler is no different, it is extremely well packaged and protected in the box.

The color theme of the Jing and therefore the packaging, is a light green and silver. The front of the box has a full picture of the cooler along with a brief list of a few of the features. The sides of the box show a quick multi-language list of a few more features. The box rear has a more detailed list of the features along with an air flow diagram. Also on the back of the box are some additional pictures of the cooler from different angles.

Opening the box you are immediately met with installation instructions for both the AMD and Intel sockets and a warranty information pamphlet. Beneath the printed information is the accessories box which is packed full of everything you need for installing on any supported CPU socket. And finally you reach the star of the show, the Jing cooler, wrapped in a thick foam block. The cooler is totally encompassed in the foam block which protects the cooler extremely well. A great job by Thermaltake once again on the packaging of the Jing.

The feature and specifications list is quite extensive for the Thermaltake Jing. As you can read below it is compatible with every Intel socket from 775 to the most current 1155. On the AMD side, socket AM2, AM2+, and AMD3 are all supported by the Jing. All of the compatibility is achieved with a single, unique backing plate which simply gets flipped from one side to another depending on an Intel or AMD installation. The 200 watt TDP rating allows support for the most demanding of today’s CPU’s.

The nickle plated fins, copper base, and heat-pipes are not only a great for heat dissipation but make the appearance very appealing to the eye. The two 120mm open air design fans are another highlight of the feature set.

We’ll explore the specifications and features in more detail as we move along.

Specifications

Features

The following pictures give you an up close view of the Thermaltake Jing from several different angles. Of note here is the dual 120 mm “Open Air” style fans which facilitate the quiet operation this cooler is designed to accomplish. Each of the two fans has it’s own speed control dial allowing for fan speeds from 800 RPM to 1300 RPM. With the fans and shroud removed you get a good look at the 41 fins that are .5mm thick and the 5 heat pipes measuring 6mm. Removing the fans and shroud is a very easy process which only requires releasing a few easily accessible retaining tabs and removing the parts.

The close up view of the backing plate reveals a very unique idea by Thermaltake. The backing plate works with all the supported socket types making for a true “all in one” design. Each side of the backing plate is marked either Intel or AMD and you simply attach the backing plate with your socket type marking away from the motherboard. In addition to the unique backing plate, the accessories include some thermal compound, all the AMD and Intel specific brackets and hardware. The accessory box is able to be used as a storage container for all the items you do not use for your application.

The base of the Jing is polished to a mirror finish as you can see by the pictures below, we found the surface to be very flat as well. No doubt the Jing will make excellent contact with the surface of the CPU.

Installation of the Thermaltake Jing really is quite simple and takes only a few minutes to accomplish. The first thing you need to do is remove the fans from both sides of the cooler which allows access to the main mounting screws. Once the fans are removed you simply attach two brackets, either the AMD or Intel ones, using the included screws.

Once the brackets are installed to the cooler you will need to move on to installing the backing plate. Lay the backing plate on the back of the motherboard. Because we are installing on an Intel socket 1156 motherboard, we want the word “Intel” facing away from the back of the board. Now just slide the four bolts completely through so the bolt heads align with the groove in the backing plate. You can now flip the motherboard over and attach the four black plastic spacer washers. Once you are at this point install either the AMD or Intel brackets depending on you socket type and apply the four thumb screws to hold the brackets down. You should have something that looks like the three pictures below at this point.

The instructions call for an East/West installation with the air flow going that direction as well, and we recommend this install method for best performance. All that is left at this point is to apply your favorite thermal compound (or use the compound in the accessory kit) and screw the cooler to the mounting brackets using the two supplied spring loaded screws. Don’t forget to attach the fans to a motherboard header, and while doing so make sure the fan speed knobs are in a place where you can get to them easily for adjusting. The following pictures show the Thermaltake Jing installed on our motherboard.

All test results were performed in an open air environment (Tech Station) with an ambient temperature of 72° Fahrenheit (22c).  For the purpose of this review we will compare the Thermaltake Jing with the Thermaltake Frio, and the stock Intel cooler with a copper base. This should give the potential buyer a good idea of the cooling the Jing  provides compared to Thermaltake’s best performing cooler and a stock Intel fan setup. Innovation Cooling Diamond (ICD7) thermal paste was used on all three coolers, our favorite compound. We will attempt a solid 1 GHz overclock from the stock 3.06 GHz speed of the i3 540. Idle temps were recorded after 30 minutes, and load temps were recorded after a 20 pass run of LinX stress test. Each test was run using a dual fan configuration on the Thermaltake coolers. The Frio and stock Intel coolers were run at maximum fan speed while the Jing testing includes fans speeds at minimum and maximum, 800 rpm and 1300 rpm respectively. We used RealTemp 3.40 to monitor the temperatures, and the highest reading from all cores was used for the results.

The following components were used in the test bed:

• Gigabyte GA-H55M-UD2H
• G.Skill 2X2 Gb Trident DDR3-2000
• PC Power and Cooling 750 Watt PSU
• Intel i3 540 CPU
• WD 500 Gb Sata HDD
• Lite-On Sata DVDRW

The Thermaltake Jing is designed to be a quiet CPU cooling solution and with that undoubtedly will come a sacrifice in cooling results when compared to high end coolers. We do not believe that Thermaltake intended for the Jing cooler to be an extreme overclocking cooler, that is not the market it is intended for. However, being an overclocking enthusiast review site, we will overclock anyway and see what the Jing can do!

First up is the testing at stock 3.06 Ghz and a voltage of 1.137. No big surprise here, the Jing performed admirably and shows quite an improvement over the stock Intel cooler under load testing. As expected the Thermaltake Frio was the best of the bunch though.

Next we ramped up the CPU speed to 3.5 Ghz using a vcore of 1.20v. As you will see throughout the testing the trend continues of a great improvement over the stock Intel cooler, but falling short of the Frio results.

As we moved on to a 3.8 Ghz overclock and a voltage of 1.22 the order of performance stays the same but you really begin to see the advantage of the Jing over stock cooling. The Frio is still the best of the bunch, but it is designed for overclocking and has much more powerful fans than the Jing. The stock Intel cooler has just about reached it’s maximum effectiveness at this point.

Finally the 4.07 results at a vcore of 1.23v ends the testing of the Intel cooler as it quickly reached 80c, at which point we stopped testing so as not to damage the CPU. The Jing still held the temperatures well within specs at both fan speeds. Even though advertised as a silent cooling solution, as you can see a good deal of overclocking is still achievable with the Thermaltake Jing.

So, there you have it, a solid 1 Ghz overclock with the Jing performing quite well actually. Is the Jing going to break records for overclocking potential? Certainly not, but that is not what it is intended for either. Good overclocks with silent operation is the Jing’s claim to fame here, and to that end it does what it is advertised to do.

If you are looking for a CPU cooler that allows for extreme overclocking, then you need to look at water cooling or some other extreme method. If however you are looking for a cooler that provides for a reasonable amount of overclocking with quiet operation, look no further as the Thermaltake Jing fits that bill perfectly. With the ability to adjust the fan speed anywhere from 800 rpm to 1300 rpm the Jing can perform under a wide variety of scenarios. With the fan speed set to the minimum 800 rpm it is dead silent and will more than likely not even be heard over other components in your system. Silent computing is becoming more and more popular these days, and this cooler is something that crowd will want to consider.

Pros

• Dual Fans
• RMP Adjustment for Each Fan
• Reasonable Overclocking Potential
• Easy Installation
• All in One Backing Plate Design
• Dead Silent at Low RPM Settings
• Protective Packaging
• CPU Socket Compatibility
• Nickle Plated

Cons

• Takes Two Motherboard Fan Headers for Stock Installations
• Case Must be Opened to Access Fan Speed Adjusting Knobs

If you are looking for a CPU cooler that will allow good overclocking while maintaining silent operation, then the Thermaltake Jing delivers on all fronts. From the open air fan design to the polished nickle finish, the Jing is very appealing to the eye as well. Given the market segment the Jing is intended for and it’s ability to deliver as promised, the Thermaltake Jing has earned the Overclockers Tech Gold award!

Dino DeCesari (Lvcoyote)