INTRODUCTION

   Having 2 out of our 3 test rigs housed inside HPTX towers is perhaps the best indication that i personally have no intention of actually using an m-ATX or m-ITX PC case at least not any time soon (who knows how things may turn out in the following years?) but it really seems that the recent increase in m-ATX and m-ITX compatible PC Cases in the market has intrigued quite a few people out there (judging from all the messages we've been getting) so naturally it was only a matter of time before the leading CPU Cooling manufacturers found ways to further improve on their current solutions. Thermalright is amongst them and although the original AXP-100 low profile CPU Cooler released roughly 10 months ago proved to be very successful they didn't stop there and so recently they updated the AXP line with the AXP-200 which ended up on our test bench just less than a month ago.

   Thermalright is an elite design house that manufactures cooling products for computer components for the best quality and performance your money can buy. In 2002, AMD released its first generation Thunderbird CPU and since then we have been there every step of the way to counter high voltage and high heat with innovative design and highly acclaimed cooling solutions not only for AMD but for Intel as well. One of early well known solutions was the SK-6. With many positive and rave reviews under its belt Thermalright bolted to the top as the heat sink manufacturer mostly preferred by Overclockers and enthusiasts around the World. To this day, innovation never left our vocabulary as we keep coming up with leading edge designs staying ahead of the competition.

   Usually when a manufacturer improves on a previously launched model what they do is strap a larger and faster fan (sometimes two) on the same exact heatsink, rename the product and be over with it in no time. That way they can improve the performance of the cooler without spending much for R&D in the process and that has actually proven quite successful in the past with several solutions. Of course Thermalright is not your average manufacturer so instead not only did they re-design the main heatsink body but they also added a larger fan in the process in order to launch the new AXP-200. Naturally a larger size automatically means the cooler needs more space so while we will undoubtedly notice increased cooling efficiency compared to the AXP-100 size will also play a part (probably will not fit everywhere the AXP-100 could). Of course the how much of a drawback that also depends on just how much better the AXP-200 is compared to the AXP-100 so let's find out.