Unfortunately, as this is really the first (and unfortunately, maybe the last) BTX heatsink review, the Safari stands on its own. By that I mean that I don't know how it rivals the reference solution, or other marketed coolers. There is one thing I can tell you, though. The second you boot the PC, it's like somebody's slammed a NOS bottle hooked up to a Screamer. This fan gets frelling loud. Even as the fan spins down and you idle into windows, it still has a thick, powerful growl that's more than willing to turn into a whooshing whine at the first chance. Unfortunately, with all the Ups and downs, it came to a point where I'd rather listen to an infant cry next to my ear than hear this heatsink. As to the performance, though? Very, very good if you pick apples with oranges on the Gigabyte 8I955X Royal I had used as a test platform for a while, though testing could be only done at stock. Though future testing may be done, I would rest assured that this sink was doing its job, provided I could sleep in the same room that is! I know that Thermaltake offers a quieter model (that maybe I'll look at if I'm lucky), and if they do, I'd be sure to give it even grander kudos for the BTX platform. But for the time being, this cooler is the best in my books.
