INTRODUCTION

   Since the beginning of 2014 alone 3 of my friends decided to build their very own HTPC systems and all three turned to me for advice regarding what hardware components they should choose. Fortunately money is not really an issue for either of them but since their goal was to keep the cost inside a specific range it did take us a while to locate the ideal components. The trick was to find components with excellent price/performance ratio and for good or bad that wasn't very easy especially since all three chose very small mini ITX compatible cases by Streacom and Impactics. Luckily both Noctua and Thermalright offered very good and compact solutions acceptable by all three but since it's always nice to know what's out there today we'll be testing the latest AXP-200 Muscle by Thermalright.

   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.

   The AXP-200 proved to be one of the best low-profile CPU Air Cooler we've ever used but it's priced somewhat high compared to other similar solutions so Thermalright had to come up with a way to reduce cost and that's exactly what they did. So in the case of the AXP-200 Muscle they removed the fancy aluminum heatpipe caps/covers and the 150mm fan frame from the bundle resulting to a price decrease of no less than 30%. We are very well aware that this means both the AXP-200 and the AXP-200 Muscle are practically the same low-profile CPU Air Cooler and thus there's very little reason for us to even be doing this review but it's also up to us to dig deeper and see whether or not these are the only two things Thermalright changed with this model so follow us as we take a closer look.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

The box also changed with the AXP-200 Muscle and this time over it has a large product picture at the front and rear.

Moving on the left side we see the product specifications while on the right side 6 drawings showcase its main features.

Although quite sufficient i do prefer the packaging of the AXP-200 more compared to that of the AXP-200 Muscle.

Inside the box you will find the AXP-200 Muscle heatsink, 140mm TY-14013BW fan, thermal paste pouch, installation instructions and all the necessary bits and pieces to mount the cooler onto Intel LGA775/1150/1155/1156/1366 and AMD AM2/AM2+/AM3/AM3+/FM1/FM2 mainboards.

THE AXP-200 MUSCLE

Due to the removal of the heatpipe caps the AXP-200 Muscle heatsink is almost identical to its predecessor and so it measures 149.99mm in length, 139.99mm in width and 59.65mm in height with a weight of 430g.

Once again the main body is made out of 49 aluminum fins each 0.5mm thick and placed 2mm away from each other.

The center still has taller fins that extend all the way down which helps to increase the surface of the heatsink.

The six 6mm nickel plated copper heatpipes leave the base and pass through all of the 49 aluminum fins.

As expected the nickel plated copper base is flat and has a very nice mirror like finish.

Thermalright also changed the color of the 140m fan (1300RPM/30.6dBA/64.52CFM) so this time over the TY-14013BW model has a black frame with white blades.

With the TY-140 fan attached the AXP-200 Muscle is now 72.65mm tall and weighs 520g.

TEST BED

TESTING METHODOLOGY

   As we have stated in the past the Intel I7-3770k system is not placed in our lab and so it's not our primary choice when testing CPU Coolers. Still since HTPC oriented models shouldn’t be used with our overclocked Core I7-3930k we have decided to take this path whenever one such model lands at our doorstep. As always our first concern is ambient temperatures so once again we keep the room temperature to around 21-23 degrees (not really hard but unfortunately not 100% accurate as in our lab) and as always to successfully record the load temperatures we use the latest OCCT application (for around 6-10 minutes) to push the processor to its limits so we can record its temperatures. After that is done we wait for about 10-20 minutes for the CPU to cool down and record the idle temperatures. This is done to allow time for the thermal conductive material to achieve the optimal performance level. Same procedure was then repeated with the Passmark BurnIn Test as a failsafe just in case the OCCT results were off. As many of you have pointed out time and again this procedure takes a lot more time than the usual peltier/thermometer tests but this way not only can we deliver real world results based on real CPUs but we can also triple check the results using a variety of programs. Last but not least the temperatures are recorded using both the latest versions of AIDA64 and RealTemp while the noise level tests are performed using a high precision ExTech HD600 Decibel Meter placed about 10-15cm above the CPU Cooler.

TEST RESULTS

CONCLUSION

   I don't really think there's much for us to say about the AXP-200 Muscle by Thermalright not when a quick look at our charts is more than enough to see that it's performance is virtually identical to that of its predecessor the original AXP-200. Sure you are missing the nice looking aluminum heatpipe caps/covers and you can't use the larger 150mm TY-150 fan (at least not without purchasing the frame separately) but the entire idea behind this was for Thermalright to produce a lower cost AXP-200 for people who are not willing to spend much. The color combination is also a nice change since i think most people will opt for a black and white fan rather than the usual "jungle camo" colors used by Thermalright.

   The Thermalright AXP-200 Muscle currently retails for USD56.28 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 34.99Euros inside the EU (PC-Cooling.de) meaning that it's roughly 30% cheaper compared to the original AXP-200 and so i really can't think of a reason for anyone to choose the AXP-200 over the Muscle edition. Of course if you like the heatpipe caps/covers A LOT and you also want the ability to mount a 150mm fan on the cooler the AXP-200 is a one way but if not then everything points to the AXP-200 Muscle. Performance, size and price the latest AXP-200 Muscle by Thermalright has it all including our Platinum Award.

PROS

- Quality
- Size / Low-Profile
- Excellent Performance (Rivaled Only By Its Predecessor)
- Socket Compatibility
- Noise Levels
- Color Combination (B/W)
- Price

CONS

- None