Thermalright has been a major player in the CPU cooling business for a number of years. It seems like ages since I first became familiar with their products, but in reality it's been just 3 short years since I picked up my first SLK-800A. I was so impressed with the cooling ability that I have used Thermalright heatsinks almost exclusively on my overclocked systems since.

Today I will be taking a look at the new HR-01, an aluminum heatsink incorporating 8, count them, 8 heatpipes in an all-new (for Thermalright) tower design. Thermalright claims the HR-01 is so efficient, it can be used solely as a passive radiator, meaning it requires no fan attached directly to the heatsink. Many companies before have tried the passive tower design... tried and failed to produce a heatsink that even comes close to equaling the performance of a traditional fan-cooled heatsink. However the HR-01 marks Thermalright's first foray into the passive tower market, and if anyone can make this thing work, and work well, it almost has to be Thermalright, right?



Continue on as we aim to find out!