Once a daring young upstart in the memory market, OCZ has made themselves quite the name over the years, as a purveyor of memory both fanciful and practical. In these recent years, just like many other companies out there, OCZ has chosen to branch out as the years bled on. For the most part, their power supply division was the most successful - at least in being a lasting legacy so to speak - after all, their graphics card division is only open here and there. Now, though their recent endeavors are somewhat impractical (the Neural Impulse Actuator), or almost vaporware - the Cryo, OCZ's cooling division has continued to produce relatively shining gems.

On the deck today, is the Gladiator Max - a heatsink which takes on the lineage afforded by a rather interesting slug of copper which took on heating duties back in the K7 days. Granted, back when this would have been a dime-a-dozen cooler, so my opinions coming into this review are mixed. Considering the four thick pipes riding the heatspreader, a good fan, and a huge mass of fins, though - there may be some hope.

Features & Specifications:

Oddly enough, OCZ's method of doing things leaves the website without a panel for features. So the bullet pointed list of the two together is what comes along.

• For Sockets AMD 754/755/939/940/AM2, Intel LGA775 *

• 4 Pure Copper heat pipes for superior heat dissipation

• Pure Aluminum alloy fins for ultimate durability
  
  
  Fan Specs
   

• Size: 120mm x 120mm x 25mm

• Weight: 780g (with fan)

• Rated Voltage: 12V DC

• Fan Speed: 800-1500RPM

• Noise Level: 19.6-26.4 dBA

• Bearing type: rifle

• Life Expectancy: 40,000 hours

• Connector: 4 pin with PWM
  
  Dimensions:

• Heatsink: (L)63 x (W)120 x (H)165mm
  
  Includes:

• 120mm Fan with rubber connectors

• Mounting Hardware for all above CPUs

• Generic Thermal Compound

Right, with that out of the way, it's time to take the cooler out of it's papercraft box.

A Closer Look:

Of the coolers lately, OCZ's design supports the worst packaging, and arguably so, considering the entire thing, including the small flap it intends to hang from, are formed of nice, thin cardboard which has already been bleached and printed in it's quest to you. That said, the items rolled into the packaging itself are in considerably better company, being wrapped up in about an inch of soft foam to each of the sides. As to the design of the package itself, it's a rather simplistic affair, which to be honest, feels a little dated. From the front of the box, the fan can be seen, though not the cooler. Around the back of the unit, there's plenty on the actual details of the sink itself.

Tucked into a niche in the side of the package is the mounting hardware, which is affixed to the underside of the heatsink by a single screw that feeds through the base, and threads into the brackets themselves. Though these screws may be quite thin, the amount of pressure that can be applied by the small plastic pins... is quite insubstantial. Did I say plastic pins? Oh, not yet. Of the design of the actual cooler itself, it features four offset 8mm heatpipes, which pass through a large body of formed fins, the each of which is capable of playing a role in supporting a fan. In the spirit of attaching a fan - something which I suggest you do in stages - small rubber plugs are utilized. Pull them through a corner of the fan (or any open corner 120mm fan), then hook them onto the fins themselves, fitting them between three fins to hold them stable. There's enough play with these rubber plugs, that the fan can be attached once the cooler is mounted, which means that attaching and removing the sink should be possible now, rather than a fight with the retention system.

Did I just mention the retention system? Oh yes, that drawback.

Installation & Performance:

Though getting the mounting arms fitted is definitely a simple affair, the installation and stability of the heatsink itself is actually rather suspect. Relying on the four plastic pins designed by Intel for the easy(?) mounting and retention of their own heatsinks, OCZ's approach of dropping and locking is definitely possible, and simple when the fan isn't installed, but that's honestly not for the best. Considering the target market of this motherboard, asking, or expecting the users to remove the motherboard wouldn't have been too far fetched, considering how much better of thermal performance it would afford. Beyond that, I'm sure if your machine were to be unfortunately dropped during it's courier phase into, or out of a LAN party, the heatsink would find it's way free. Surprisingly, this is really the only flaw in an otherwise solid product.