Thermalright HR-05 HighRiser Northbridge Heatsink

Desktop motherboards usually don’t require any active cooling, as their chipsets do not run that hot. In recent years the increasing clock speeds and number of integrated devices are pushing these chipsets harder, making them hotter. Most motherboard’s North Bridge takes the brunt of this work, as it handles communications between the main CPU and other devices. Motherboard manufacturers have turned to active cooling as their motherboards have become more powerful (especially overclocking-friendly motherboards), but they still use cheap materials or other cheap options to keep production costs low. Most people won’t really care about chipset heatsinks, but the performance crowd will want to squeeze out every bit of performance (or extend the life of their hardware), by using higher-perfirmance quality third-party heatsinks.

Thermalright is one aftermarket cooling supplier that have catered to performance enthusiasts for years. Thermalright makes some of the best air-cooled CPU and VGA heatsinks in the market. Thermalright entered the chipset market with the introduction of the NB-1 and NB-1C, which showed amazing performance and won the loyalty of many PC enthusiasts.

Based on their relatively new High-Riser series, the HR-05 is the first Thermalright Chipset cooler utilizing heatpipe technology.

	Thermalright HR-05 Northbridge Heatsink Specifications Features Passively cooled heatsink design for no-noise operation (70mm Fan optional) Proprietary through holes on fins for effiecient ventilation Soldered fins to copper base (nickel plated) to make effective contact Light weight and easy installation Dimensions L77.9 x W19(fin), W30(base)x H105 (mm), without fan Weight 145g (heat sink only) Optional Fan Any 70x70x15mm fan Motherboard Compatibility Intel Pentium-4 LGA775 platform ATI: Radeon Express 200 Intel 775: 975X, 955X, 945G, 945P, 945PL, 925X, 925XE, 915G, 915P, 865PE, 848P nVidia: nForce4 SLI Intel Edition SiS: SiS 656, SiS 661FX/964 VIA: P4M800, PT880 Ultra Intel 478: 865, 865G, 845, 845PE, 875**

Like Thermalright’s other products, the HR-05 is shipped in a thin brown cardboard box. Opening the cardbord box reveals that the heatsink is well protected, as it is wrapped in a thick plastic bag, and nestled snugly into custom-cut foam. The heatsink is not extremely delicate, but is protected so well that you receive it in mint condition.