Thermaltake Safari BX-01 BTX CPU Cooler Review :: Safari BX-01

Since the BTX market never really took flight, there are many users out there that don't even know it existed. Heatsink manufacturers, for that matter, seem to be even more affected by this trend, as the heatsinks of this form factor are so few and far between that nearly no crazy new designs have been seen. As a result of this sobriety of design, most sinks you'll see are clutch copies of the reference model, if not the actual one itself. To users who have never seen the reference model - don't feel so bad - with Intel charging a premium for them, they're probably still rotting on some store shelves.

So what does it look like, then? You ask. Well, simple. It's a huge black block, with the bulk of its 1,025G weight being copper and aluminum. Yes, that's right - there's near two pounds of metal in this beast, fed by a thick 38mm by 92mm fan. The fan features the same air focusing fins that you'd see on Vantec tornados, Delta Screamers, or even bestial Nidec Beta Vs. These fins help to keep the flow nice and straight, so it can blast right out of the fan and through the area beyond. It also provides some much needed depth to construct a larger, more powerful motor that won't whine at high speeds. These beefier fans are known to have a growl, even when the volts are turned down, but I'm hoping that Thermaltake's engineers have found a way to keep the noise down. On the other side of the fan, a label showing off the fan's heritage of being made by Super Red can be seen - fans that I've used and had success with in the past.

Safari and Screws

Safari By Itself

Forward Fan View

Rear Fan View

Peeling away the shroud (which also houses the mounting holes, for those interested), we're left with one bigass block of aluminum fins, soldered to a copper base with a raised CPU contact "foot" to meet this CPU. To shoe this foot, (or perhaps sock it), Thermaltake has put down a nice grey patch of thermal sludge, which, while not the world's best performer, is more than adequate for this task. As to its connection to the base, the foot is a formed part of it, feeding upward in pure copper toward the outlandishly large expanse to which fins are fixed. Once again, a 3 is inexplicably stamped into the base, along with the Thermaltake website. This website link can also be found, with a logo across the top of the shroud. For those interested in the intricacies of the shroud, it has a felt washer around the front to seal to the front of the case, and can easily hide the four wire plug from the PWM controlled beast of a fan.

Base and Fins folder

Bottom view

Read-end view

Base

Core from above

Core from behind

Fin density

As to how it arrives, the entire unit comes assembled, sitting between two foam blocks inside a typically clandestine box, which screams Thermaltake. Across the front of the box, the unit's model name (Safari BX-1) can be seen, along with its part number (CL-P0030-03), and it's designation as a "Performance" sink, capable of sucking up almost 130W of heat. Turning the box to the left, I found a nice feature sheet, which listed off the already obvious facts that it's designed for BTX and Micro BTX, is built from aluminum fins soldered to a copper base, which are fed by the dual layer PWM controlled 92mm fan. It also points out that the thermal pad is a Honeywell PCM45F pad, which, in the lovely words of Engrish, "perform well". Finally, it details the purpose of the "Noise Elimination Sponge", which is that foam around the fan, which eliminates the wind noise from the fan pulling air through the tiny gap between fan and case. All around good stuff. Now, flipping the box around, I came to a rather detailed spec sheet, complete with a little graph about the cooler's thermal response to different levels of airflow. That spec sheet can be seen in the photo below for you inquisitive readers out there.

Box

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