AMD Socket  Heat Sink & 2.75″ Fan w/4-Pin Connector up to Athlon II X4 2.9GHz

If the results of our last hardware survey are any indication, most TR readers toss the CPU coolers Intel and AMD include with their processors in favor of aftermarket replacements. I’m no different. My parts shelf is rife with stock coolers whose only saving grace is their usefulness as a frame of reference for our aftermarket heatsink reviews.

As anybody with ears can tell you, stock heat-sinks often don’t sound that great under load, and they usually turn in thermal performance that’s best described as “good enough.” Even affordable third-party coolers offer a big step up in cooling and acoustic performance.

The Wraith’s shroud is gussied up with an LED-backlit AMD logo that’s invisible when the cooler is off. This looks neat, and it’s pretty fancy for a boxed heatsink. Problem is, unless you have a case with a big window and you’re looking at the cooler at just the right angle, this logo will be quite difficult to see in use.

It does look nice on our test bench, though.Since it’s a boxed CPU cooler, the Wraith can’t be purchased on the open market. Instead, AMD will include this cooler exclusively with its FX-8370 CPU right now. This $200 chip offers eight Piledriver cores (or four modules, if you prefer) running at 4GHz base and 4.3GHz turbo speeds, all wrapped up in a 125W TDP. The FX-8370 seems like it’ll be a worthy challenge for this heatsink.