I don't know about you, but I personally have already got used to see coolers on heat pipes to have a tower-like design. There are usually a few heat pipes passing through a copper base and carrying aluminum plates to dissipate heat. The manufacturers may experiment with the shape of the ribbing and the number of pipes and may install different fans, air-ducts, casings, etc, but the overall concept remains the same. As far as I can recall, there are only Zalman's CNPS9500 and 9700 and Thermaltake's Big Typhoon that go off this trend somewhat.

Two more coolers with an original shape of the heatsink and heat pipes, differing from the classic tower design, are going to be described in this review. These are the Mars and Eclipse models released recently by Cooler Master. Besides checking out the pros and cons of these new air coolers, I?ll discuss the midrange Cooler Master Hyper TX model which is not very new but is worthy of your attention.

Let's meet out testing participants.

Testing Participants

Cooler Master Mars (RR-CCX-W9U1-GP)

Cooler Master's new product features an absolutely new and original design:

It comes in a translucent plastic package which reveals it to the eye almost in full.

This packaging also holds the cooler firmly so that there is a minimum of risk of damage during transportation.

There is a list of specifications on the package. It contains a small flat box at the bottom with the following accessories:

• Mounting frame to install the cooler on Socket 754/939/940/AM2 mainboards
• Mounting frame to install the cooler on LGA775 mainboards
• Installation Guide
• Cooler Master thermal grease
• A pack of screws, nuts, spacers and rubber pads with a key