The TRUE Black 120 was tested using our heatsink testing methodology that was developed for our recent EPIC heatsink roundup. We now have results for seventeen heatsinks included for comparison.
Wow. Just when I thought things couldn’t get much better than Sunbeam’s potent “Core-contact Freezer”, the TRUE knocks it out of first place by a very healthy margin. Very impressive, Thermalright!
We see a very similar trend with small FFT testing in Prime95. The TRUE Black 120 managed to best the Core-contact Freezer by an amazing 5 degree difference.
As expected, the TRUE Black 120 does not provide much cooling to motherboard components. This is an unfortunate disadvantage to tower style heatsinks. Down-draft models typically do not cool the CPU as well, but provide excellent cooling to VR components, memory and the chipset. Buyers of tower-based heatsinks should ensure that they have adequate case airflow to compensate for this.
The TRUE Black 120 does well on our AM2 platform, but is unable to take a large lead like it did on our LGA775 test system. Its performance is about at par with Noctua’s NH-U12P and the OCZ Vendetta 2.