Installation
For this review, I will be using an AMD Athlon 64 CPU with a steel K8 backing plate. The CPU IHS and heatsink base were cleaned with Isopropyl alcohol before applying a small amount of Arctic Silver 5 thermal compound and installing the heatsink. The Thermalright Ultra-120 cooler was very easy to install — much better than some of the other high performance heat pipe coolers I have recently tested. The Ultra-90 used an OEM style retention clip but the Ultra-120 uses two machine screws and springs.
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The only catch to positioning the cooler on an AMD motherboard may be how your particular motherboard is laid out. The orientation of the Ultra-120 heatsink is pre-defined by the position of the heat pipes and alignment of the retention frame holes on the motherboard.
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On my test bed (Asus K8N-E Deluxe), the Ultra-120 heatsink cleared all of the surrounding components — even the extra tall Corsair Pro memory modules (but just barely). I mounted the fan so that it pulled air thru the heatsink. This orientation works especially well if you have a power supply with a bottom mounted fan. The warm exhaust air from the CPU heatsink gets sucked right into the power supply and exhausted out the back of the case.
