Thermalright vs Zerotherm: Cooler Faceoff

Zerotherm Nirvana NV120

Manufacturer: Zerotherm[/ueurl]
UK Price (as Reviewed): [eurl=http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/products/amdcooling/zt-nirvana]£33
US Price (as Reviewed): $59.99

CPU Socket Support: AMD Sockets AM2 / AM2+ / 939 / 754 and Intel LGA 775
Weight: 628g (without fan)
Size: 128 (W) x 95 (H) x 150mm (D)

The Zerotherm BTF90 was previously awarded as our CPU cooler of the year in 2007 for its excellent price, performance and feature-set. The Nirvana NV120 represents an updated and larger alternative that’s based on the same excellent design. However, Zerotherm has decided to swap out the copper fins for nickel-chrome plated aluminium ones instead.

The box is far more attractive than the Thermalright, but who really cares unless you’re window shopping – hardily a common occurrence in our modern e-tailer orientated society. The NV120 is packed securely whilst being clearly visible in the unopened box thanks to the plastic shell it has been packed in.


The cooler is quite heavy, but it’s not as heavy as the Thermalright Ultra 120 eXtreme – thankfully it requires screwing down rather than plastic push-pins for mounting on LGA775. It’s significantly larger than the BTF90, and is built tall enough to keep the fins away from conflicts with motherboard components. The fins still mirror the BTF90 in its butterfly design, but now it has four “U” shaped heatpipes connecting these angular and (purposely) dimpled fins to the nickel-chrome plated base.


It’s interesting how everyone has their own way of creating air turbulence and while Zerotherm’s may look good, we don’t feel it ruffles the air quite as well as OCZ or Thermalright solutions. The build quality is excellent though – the unit is very solid, the fins don’t slice your fingers and the plated parts make it look fantastic.


The base is very well polished to a near mirror finish, although there are some machine-made dents still visible but it's certainly better than the Thermalright. The included fan is a larger 120mm (hence the “NV120” name) and features two blue LEDs—which seems to be customary these days—with a 3-pin connector, meaning there is no motherboard-controlled fan speed adjustments.

The problem with this design, like Zalman CNPS heatsinks is that if you break the fan, the whole thing is useless and breaking the fan is quite likely given the installation mechanism – at least on Intel LGA775 systems.

The fan may only have a standard 3-pin connector, but included in the box is also a weirdly shaped fan adapter too; it’s got a strange and wholly unnecessary ergonomic form, like there should be buttons where the indented holes are.

It’s not exactly small and discrete enough to easily hide in your case, but it does adjust the fan speed between its rated 39dB 2,300RPM and virtually silent 19dB 1,000RPM.