Raijintek Tisis Review

Raijintek Tisis Review

Manufacturer: Raijintek
Supplier: Overclockers UK
UK price (as reviewed): £65.15 (inc VAT)
US price (as reviewed): $69.99 (ex TAX)

If your system is powered by a non K-series Intel CPU or maybe one of AMD's APUs, then chances are you can get away with some fairly lowly cooling in terms of heatsinks. For the rest of us, though - whether you're running a 6-core or 8-core AMD CPU or a heavily overclocked Intel Core-i5 or Core-i7, you'll need to think more carefully and opt for an all-in-one liquid cooler or a large air cooler such as Raijintek's Tisis that we're looking at today.


Of course, we've seen plenty of smaller coolers that were able to cope with overclocked CPUs but the benefits of going large are generally that you get the same or better cooling, but at greatly-reduced noise levels. The Tisis claims to have a maximum noise output of 23 dBA and with its two 140mm PWM fans able to drop down from a peak of 1,000rpm to 600rpm, this does bode well for keeping up with some of the larger high-performing heatsinks out there too in terms of noise output.


At £65, this isn't particularly cheap but it's worth remembering that there are plenty of example that cost £10-15 more and that this is in the low-end of all-in-one liquid cooler territory too. You get a heck of a lot of cooler for your money though and Raijintek will soon be releasing a Black Edition if you want a meaner look - the two should perform the same. The Tisis is enormous. It weighs in at over a kilogram when installed and just the heatsink measures 140mm end to end, is 166mm high and 130mm wide.


Coupled with its fans, the length is over 155mm, which is enough to straddle DIMM slots on either sides of an LGA2011/2011-v3 motherboard. This isn't usually a problem - you're likely going to kiss goodbye to easy memory access with coolers this size, but the real issue is clearance. You'll be limited to low-profile DIMMs and when we say low profile - they can't have anything above the usual PCB height for a memory module.

This is mainly due to the fact that the Tisis uses rubber clips to mount the fans onto the heatsink. These are a lot like those we've seen with SilverStone's coolers. They're much easier than dreaded, spindly fan clips but not quite as elaborate and easy to use as SilverStone's offerings. However, unlike fan clips, you're essentially unable to raise the fans up out of the way of memory modules like you can on most other coolers of this type as a result.


In terms fo cooling, there's a large nickel-plated copper base plate that houses five beefy 8mm heatpipes as well as a huge double stack of aluminium fins. You can mount the two fans in several configurations too - a single fan at the rear, centre or front, or two fans - one at either end or with one at the centre and one at the rear or at the front, with the latter being the default configuration that we've tested.

Installation isn't one of the Tisis' strong points. It's fiddly and its huge size means that installing it with the motherboard in the case is nearly impossible. Even removing the motherboard it can be a little trying. We're not ones to dock too many points for tricky installations as you only need to do it once in what will likely be many years of uses. However, we'll just say the short tempered should avoid the Tisis.

Specifications

• Compatibility Intel: LGA775, LGA1366, LGA115x, LGA2011, LGA2011-v3 AMD: AM3(+), AM2(+), FM2(+), FM1
  
• Size (with fans) (mm) 130 x 140 x 166 (W x D x H)
  
• Fan size (mm) 2 x 140 x 150 x 25 (W x D x H)
  
• Fan(s) 2 x 140mm (included), Up to 1,000rpm
  
• Stated NoiseUp to 23dB(A)
  
• Extrasnone