Introduction:

Ever since 1999 Thermaltake has been producing high quality aftermarket computer parts geared towards the enthusiasts. Their products range from cases to coolers, from standard equipment to over the top products. Today we have one of Thermaltake's over the top products. Enter the Thermaltake Beetle.

First Impressions/Contents:

The first thing you notice about the Beetle is that it is freakishly big. The size of the heatsink is crazy and definitely adds some uniqueness to the cooler. Once you get past the monster size the second thing you'll notice are the heat pipes. Three of them to be exact. Heat pipes, commonly used in laptop and sff computers have been getting more and more popular lately, and for good reason. Heat pipes have been becoming more popular lately, mainly because they have a much higher thermal conductivity they just a standard heatsink. Here is a picture of the unit as well as a detailed specification table ripped from Thermaltake's web site.

The Beetle

One thing you might notice in the spec table is the Compatibility section. The cooler supports pretty much every modern cpu socket type. Not many heatsinks support more than one socket let alone four. The Beetle will work on LGA775, P4, K8, and K7. The cooler achieves this by using different clips and bars for each socket type. Here are a few shots of the cooler as well as some of the mounting hardware. In the third picture I have the Beetle next to a stock heatsink for a 2.8ghz Prescott for size reference.