DFI UT X48-T2R / DFI UT X48-T3R Transpiper II Mini Review.

Clunk · #1 01-05-2008, 17:57

DFI UT X48-T2R / DFI UT X48-T3R Transpiper II Mini Review.

Today, we have a sample of the Transpiper II - It is DFI's latest on board cooling solution for their top end motherboards and it is manufactured for them by Thermalright.

I have been a fan (no pun intended

) of DFI's cooling attempts of recent months with the Heat Minator, and really, it's only shortfall was that it wouldn't accept larger coolers in the vertical position, without a small amount of modding.

The heat dissipation properties of the old 3-heatsink set up was never in doubt, but for the UT series, DFI wanted something a bit more special, and they certainly went for it on the UT P35-T2R, which had the original Transpiper set up, which was undeniably good (with a few minor design flaws), but in my opinion was massive overkill for that board.

Now then, with the Transpiper II, the coolers aren't quite as in your face, and it appears that a lot more thought has gone into the refining process.

I will be fitting the Transpiper II kit to my LT X48-T2R , and I will compare the temps of the PWM, NB & SB before and after. I will not be going into huge detail, just some simple software readings, and some readings from a temp probe.

The Transpiper II kit was shipped to me in a makeshift box - not much point in showing that, so lets have a look at what there is.

I've done plenty of shots so you can see what it looks like from most angles...

Build quality is excellent throughout.

Continued below...

Clunk · #2 01-05-2008, 18:00

The NorthBridge heatsink has a black coloured top and you can see the protective plastic covering.

The top of this heatsink clips off and a taller heatsink clips in it's place, think Thermalright HR-05 and you won't be too far off the mark. (I'm waiting for that one to arrive, so will update the pics for that ASAP.)

Again, the Southbridge has a black finish and a protective, peel off plastic coating.

The PWM heatsink is an impressive looking bit of kit. The two phillips screws are to hold yet another heatpipe/heatsink assembly in place - more on that shortly.

No clips here! - note the captive M3 machine screws that hold the heatsink to the motherboard.

Clunk · #3 01-05-2008, 18:02

In true Thermalright fashion, the underside of all the heatsinks, is a machined, nickel plated copper design, and it looks to be nice and flat - For me, this is a very nice touch, and shows great attention to detail.

One thing that I feel could be improved upon is that if you want to water cool the NB, you have to remove the entire heatpipe assembly and either butcher it or use seperate after market heatsinks.

I feel that the heatpipes that feed into the NB heatsink could have somehow been clipped in place, similar to how the PWM add on heatpipe fits in place, and that would still allow for a water cooled NB and also allow you to keep the PWM and SB coolers.

On the left we have an aluminium heatsink/backplate for the PWM heatsink assembly. This is a nice inclusion and will stop the main PWM heatsink from losing contact with the PWMs if the board is fitted with a CPU block/heatsink that doesn't have a backplate.

There is also a bag of screws, nuts and washers, and also a clip for holding the tall heatsink onto the Northbridge.

This is the heatpipe/heatsink that fits onto the back of the PWM heatsink. It then pokes through the I/O shield area of your case and out of the back.

I really like the fact that this is removable because this isn't going to work for everyone. For example, if you have a PSU that is constantly blowing out hot air, then this heatsink is going to get all of that blowing on it.

It would appear that this would be better suited to those people that have a case with a PSU at the bottom, and then they could add a fan to the heatsink and that should do the trick - I will update this part once I have tested.

Another thing I was wondering about, and I wondered this on the original transpiper too - Where the clip-on heatpipe joins the PWM heatsink, would it be of any benefit to youse some thermal paste on that joint? Something non-conductive like Ceramique should do it - I will update this part later as well.

Next, fitting...