Titan Amanda TECProvided by:
TitanTitan has send us some high quality CPU coolers in the past, going from the larger Vanessa-L with 120mm support to the low cost 92mm Tower heatsinks. Today they send us rather unique product, this HSF uses an active TEC to help cool the CPU. We’ve seen this design before by another company going by the name of MACS. The Titan Amanda differs slightly with the fan setup and how the TEC unit is controlled.
The Amanda has two bulky 92x92x32mm fans which spin at approximately ~1600rpm. There are 4 heat pipes attached in pairs of 2 to the top/bottom of the TEC, this allows the unit to operate without the TEC active during idle CPU moments.
Platform compatibility: Intel Socket 775
Fan Support: 2x92mm (fans included = ~1600rpm)
Dimensions: 140 x 95 x 170 mm
Weight (with fan): 1035gr
The large box contains plenty of goodies, a back plate and screws take care of getting the heatsink onto your CPU, then there are a collection of power wires and a PCI controller card; a tube of thermal paste, detailed instructions manual and weight reduction cables round up the package contents.
A wind tunnel sort of design lets the air flow through the collection of tightly packed aluminum fins; the design is identical to the MACS Triumph we tested earlier. Titan decided to swap one high speed 92mm fan with two lower CFM models.
This is the MACS Triumph Athlon 64 version
Looking at the bottom of the unit the mounting brackets are revealed as well as nicely polished copper base.
Installation
The Titan Amanda turns your installation method upside down, instead of placing the heatsink onto the CPU, you need to put your motherboard/CPU on the Amanda. It takes a bit of practice to get it right, and an extra pair of hands will come in handy.
Protective plastic rings are taped on the mounting holes
With the heatsink in place the motherboard is dominated by this large structure, we found no incompatibility issues on the Asrock motherboard, but with the Amanda lunging over the memory slots, a taller module (like Corsair Dominator) might cause problems.
With the CPU in place all that is left is putting the PCI controller in a spare slot, and connecting all the necessary wires, each one uses a plug ‘n play connector so you can’t accidentally plug them in the wrong way. If you want to monitor the RPM of the fans two 3-pin connectors are provided.
With the motherboard back in the case we were left with little room between the rear fan and the exhaust 92mm fan from the Amanda. This might cause turbulence, and ends up creating more noise, but that’s only theory, we’ll soon find out in practice.
The status of the Amanda's TEC can be checked at the back of your system through the LEDs on the PCI bracket, the one on the left indicates power, the middle one lights up in case of a problem, the right one goes on if the TEC is in use at higher CPU temps.
At full load the system power usage went up from 138W (with stock Intel HSF) to 193W when the TEC was powered on. Taking into account PSU efficiency the increase is pretty on par with the TEC's rated 50W.
Amanda is ready for testing!