Conclusions
In my opinion the Thermalright XP-120 heatsink is an outstanding product. The overall design and fit-and-finish is excellent. And it is very light weight too. Once again I believe we are seeing the advantages that properly designed and integrated heat pipe technology has to offer. The Thermalright XP-120 produced the best performance to noise ratio I have seen to date from any air-cooling solution.
Unfortunately, because of its large size, the XP-120 may not fit every motherboard; but thanks to its unique shape, it will probably fit most. If you do find the XP-120 is physically too large to fit your board, remember the new XP-90 heatsink also offers very good performance in a smaller package. And also because of its size, accessing the mounting clips requires a little more care and patience than some of the competition.
A big thanks to our good friend Gary at Sidewinder Computer Systems Inc. for sending us the XP-120 to review — thank you!