It was exactly two years ago when I reviewed my first heatsink designed to hold a 120mm fan, the Thermalright SI-120. At the time, 120mm fans were not commonly found on CPU coolers, and the size of the SI-120 was a bit daunting. But in the two years since then, CPU cores have doubled, even quadrupled, and large heatsinks, primarily tower designs, have become almost the defacto standard for high end processor cooling. Thermalright is no exception to this. Their Ultra and IFX series continue to dominate the top of their product line. Today I have the opportunity to review a new twist on an old favorite. Thermalright combines the best of their blow-down coolers with the unique design of the high-riser series to bring us the SI-128 SE. Instead of "Second Edition" as you might think, the S in SE is for Silent, something their HR line of coolers was quite good at. What started two years ago as the SI-120 has evolved into this latest incarnation of the 120mm blow-down cooler.



As is typical for Thermalright, the heatsink comes shipped in a plain brown box with only the company name and model number printed on the outside. Items inside are neatly packed in soft foam for protection during shipment. The heatsink itself is further wrapped in a thick plastic bag.

Continue for a closer look at the SI-128SE.