Asus Triton 85

Asus Triton 85

Manufactuerer: Asustek
UK Price (as reviewed): £34.02 (inc VAT)
US Price (as reviewed): $49.99 (ex. Tax)

Weight (with fan): 520g
Size (with fan): 120mm(W) x 137mm(D) x 123mm(H)
Fan Size: 120mm
Fan Speed: 1400RPM
Noise Level: 16 dBa
Warranty: Two year standard warranty

Introduction

Our Criteria of what we look for in a high performance aftermarket heatsink is simple. The ideal heatsink is easy to fit, quiet, has high thermal performance and affordable value. However, the very nature of cooling makes striking the balance between these characteristics very difficult.

If you make a heatsink too heavy with cooling fins, you’ll need to include a back plate mounting system, make the fan too quiet and thermal performance will suffer, include mountains of unnecessary features and the price becomes an issue.


Today’s heatsink comes from one of the largest players in the global consumer hardware market, Asustek, a company almost all of you will be familiar with in some shape or form. The Taiwanese hardware giant manufactures or sells almost everything needed to build a PC, from motherboards, to soundcards.

They also dabble in the CPU cooler market, but in the past we’ve seen coolers from Asus like the Silent Knight and Arctic Square struggle to justify their very high costs with comparable thermal performance. Let’s hope today’s subject, the Asus Triton 85, won’t suffer from the same problem of too much dough for not enough go.

What’s in the Box?

As you’d expect from Asus, the box is clearly written and fully displays the cooler’s specifications on the rear, as well as listing the included bits and pieces; although the included “Grease Injection” sounds like something done in seedy back alley clubs rather than a tube of standard thermal paste (which we certainly hope is what Asus means!).


Inside the box, the heatsink was well packaged in a moulded plastic surround to protect the fins and base during transit and the included mounting brackets and so forth were inside a zip-lock plastic bag separate from the heatsink.

Sadly, that hefty price tag doesn’t buy you any extra features or shiny toys to go with your heatsink, and Asus have included the absolute bare minimum. You get the AMD socket retention bar, a quick installation manual, the LGA 775 mount brackets and four loose screws. Hardly the luxury load out you’d expect for a cooler that, if you’re running an older system, is worth more than the processor you’re mounting it on.

In the past we’ve seen inexpensive inclusions like adjustable fanbus’, cloths to remove finger prints and step down voltage cables included with fairly inexpensive coolers, so it’s a disappointment when you pay a premium and don’t get any extras. Let’s hope the Triton 85 can redeem itself in other areas!