Air coolers from Thermalright Inc. belong to a separate class of highly efficient coolers. Neither the fact that Thermalright solutions are pretty rare in the market these days, nor their high price and no fans bundled with the coolers, not even often imperfect finish of the cooler base can stop real enthusiasts. Overclockers are ready to spend hours looking for these solutions, pay extra for them and then work hard on perfecting the base finish for the sake of superior cooling efficiency. And I have to admit that the result is 100% justified, as in the end there are no coolers out there that could compete with Thermalright solutions.

Our today’s article will be devoted to two coolers from Thermalright that feature minor constructive differences from the solutions we have already reviewed before. Nevertheless, our today’s review will answer some questions you have asked us before. Namely, if Thermalright Ultra-120 A is considerably less efficient than its elder brother, Ultra-120 eXtreme? Or, if the new modified SI-128 SE model is significantly better than its younger brother, SI-128. Is paying extra justified in both cases and are these coolers comparably efficient?

Read our review to answer these and many other questions you might have about Thermalright cooling solutions.

Thermalright Ultra-120 A

Package and Accessories

The boxes that all Thermalright coolers come in never have any information n them. The thick brown cardboard is decorated only with the company name and cooler model. That’s it:

The cooler is wrapped in clear plastic and sits securely in a polyurethane foam casing inside the cardboard box. So, it is very unlikely to get damaged during transportation. Next to this casing there is a small box with accessories including the following components:

• Backplate for LGA 775 mainboards;
• Retention bracket for LGA 775 mainboards;
• Retention pate for AMD K8 processors;
• Four spring screws for LGA 775 mainboards;
• Four spring screws for AMD K8 mainboards;
• Two fan retention wire clips;
• Two silicon strips with one sticky side;
• A syringe with Thermalright thermal compound;
• Thermalright logo sticker;
• Installation manual.

Like all other Thermalright coolers, Ultra-120 A comes without any fans in the box.