A Closer Look:

Slipping away the dark cardboard packaging with inset glistening V8s, the sink itself is rather well protected - about as much so as you, the user would be well informed learning about the product from it's parcel. Packaged in with the sink are a bundle of parts for mounting hardware-  which is rather easy to fit to the cooler itself, as well as a brief booklet on the installation of the thing. Really, though - the packaging isn't all of what this cooler is about; that honor falls to the metallic monstrosity within the box.

Installation & Performance:

Right, let's start off with being blunt on this endeavor - the V8 is a rather simple cooler to install, though it has some quirks. First off, bolt on the appropriate baseplate with the four tiny screws, and thread into it's body the four reverse-threaded screws - which should tighten themselves as the retention nuts torque down, rather than loosen. Then, thread those little posts through the board, resting the cooler against your prepared processor, then decide on the use of a backplate, before dropping on the plastic washers (if you aren't using a backplate), and finally the nuts. Thoughtfully, Coolermaster has included a little screwdriver driven wrench for these nuts - which unfortunately slides off most of the time if you're trying to use the backplate. Tighten the nuts in an X fashion until they bottom out, and you're golden. In spirit, it's much akin to what I saw Evercool do on their Transformer 6 last month, albeit so much more refined. With the cooler bolted down, it's time to check out the performance.

There we have it. Finally, a heatsink, that's easy to use, performs so very well, and most importantly, looks great in the process. It was said ages ago on one forum or another "I don't care what it is, or how much it costs, I just want something that performs better". Now, when I got a hold of my first TRUE, those are the sorts of things I thought I would never think. But after a year and a half of the same sink holding that performance crown, I'd have to say the excitement had gone. Now, Cooler Master has finally come to snatch away that performance crown.

That glowing praise dropped, this heatsink is far from without faults. In order to blow away the thermal records, the fan needed to be cranked right up, and it's quite noisy at that. The mounting system - though beautiful in design, is a bit of a pest to use with the Intel backplate, since the wrench slides off all the time, and finally, with so much bulk to it, the cooler is actually difficult to get around, to install cabling at the least.

But, I digress. I rather liked this cooler. Hell, I wouldn't even be embarrassed to say I loved it. After a long stretch of decent coolers, Cooler Master has finally struck gold. More importantly, though - it will finally give geeks the chance to pat the top of their chassis and say "Yep, it's got a V8." No word on if it'll get beaming grins, or a cheesy laugh, though.

Got News? Send 'em in!