Zerotherm BTF95 review

ZeroTherm's 128-mm tall butterfly-shaped processor cooler is fanless.

The polished copper pad conducts hot air from your processor to the rows of thin heat fins, which help dissipate the heat. However, you still need a case fan to carry this hot air out of the case.

The BTF95 can be used with AMD and Intel processors. ZeroTherm recommends a maximum of an Athlon 64 3400+ processor. While the instructions say it's compatible with the Pentium 4, we'd be wary as these processors can run very hot so we'd use this product only on Core 2 Duo processors.

If you have an AMD-based PC, fitting the BTF95 couldn't be easier. It uses the standard heatsink mount, so all you have to do is clip the cooler into place. We tested it on an Athlon 64 3400+ and found the BTF95 kept it running at 39°C when idle and 55°C at full load. The reference AMD cooler was slightly better at 38°C when idle and 48°C at full load. For AMD systems, we'd recommend this only for lower-speed processors that aren't used for a lot of processor-intensive work or overclocking.

Fitting the BTF95 to an Intel processor is more involved, as you have to remove the motherboard and fit a backing plate to the underside of the processor socket. Running a Core 2 Duo E6300 (1.86GHz), we found that Intel's stock cooler kept the processor running at 41°C when idle and 45°C under load; the BTF95 was close to this performance with 43°C when idle and 47°C under load. Again, we'd be careful if you plan to overclock or wish to run lots of processor-intensive tasks.

We'd rather stick with a standard heatsink and fan for AMD processors, but if you have a Core 2 Duo you want to run silently, this does the job well.

Author: David Ludlow