Introduction

From the NZXT website:

React, adapt, and be fearless: we’re a group of young people who aspire to be better tomorrow than we are today. We are driven by the yearning to explore, create, change, and push boundaries. Our culture revolves around having a passion to walk off the well-beaten path, and turn away from the status quo.

NZXT has forged a reputation for being unique. They consider themselves avante-garde and unconventional, which, considering the wide array of products and designs they offer, certainly rings true. Their desire to push innovation rather than simply pushing out more products is a mindset that has served them well, as they continue to release new, interesting, and game-changing designs for cases and coolers. That said, their power supplies have also gained a strong foothold in the enthusiast community for their reliability and excellent quality.

Many of NZXT's recent products have taken the market by storm. The Switch 810 has gained a following for being water-cooling friendly. Meanwhile, the Hale 90 series of power supplies have gained a following not only for their unique black and white color scheme, but also for their reliability and performance. Even their CPU coolers are gaining notoriety, with the Havok 140 and Kraken x60 coolers putting them on the map as a manufacturer to reckon with. NZXT certainly is not a newcomer as they have been well-known to enthusiasts for many years; however, they have recently really kicked it up a notch through innovation and unique design.

Today, I review the NZXT Respire T40. My initial impression of the Respire T40 reminds me of the Cooler Master's Hyper 212 with a bit more panache. My expectations are high for NZXT's CPU cooler as it could be a serious contender in the entry-level market that for so long has been held captive by the competition. Let's find out just what the Respire T40 can do!

Packaging & Contents

NZXT's packaging measures in at 17 cm x 20 cm x 10 cm. The box is extremely small for the size of the cooler it contains, pointing to a lack of padding, which worries me a bit. The front of the box shows an image of the cooler and points out a few features, including the four 8 mm heatpipes, the option for a second fan, and Seamless Direct Touch (SDT). The right side gives the cooler's dimensions and all other specifications related to the heatsink and fan.


The back of the box again shows the CPU cooler off, with a closer look at some of its features. The left side has a short paragraph detailing the NZXT Respire T40. Below it is a list of all supported sockets.

Contents

Opening the box, I am confronted by less than stellar packaging: a simple plastic tray holds everything in place. It is easy to feel the cheapness of the plastic packaging once it has been removed. Even more problematic is that the accessories are packaged in a way to cause damage to the heatsink's base with one good drop. I was lucky in that nothing was damaged, but with the way it is currently packaged, a single drop could put dents into the heatpipes.


The included parts are pretty straight forward. The heatsink and fan are nothing truly amazing. The heatsink is of a single-tower design that makes use of heatpipes in direct contact with the CPU. The fan is also nothing to really write home about; it is a sleeve-bearing fan with a life span of 20,000 hours, which is slightly over 2 years of 24/7 use. That said, more can't be expected given the price. The instructions are on a single, large fold-out that is very easy to read and follow, making installation of this cooler easy for even first-time builders. NZXT even provided extra fan clips should you want to attach a second fan. Finally, the mounting hardware itself is straight forward and easy to use. The crossbar is extremely sturdy, although the NZXT logo on top seems like a wasted effort, but it doesn't hurt either.


Common parts supplied for mounting include:

• 4x Nuts
• 4x Spacers
• 4x Backplate screws
• 4x LGA 2011 thumb screws
• 4x Fan clips
• 2x AMD mounting arms
• 2x Intel mounting arms
• 2x Crossbar screws
• 1x Crossbar
• 1x 120 mm x 120 mm x 25 mm fan
• 1x Intel backplate
• 1x Packet of thermal paste
• 1x Set of extra rubber pads
• 1x Speed adaptor