Thermalright has been a major player in the CPU cooling business for a number of years. It seems like ages since I first became familiar with their products, but in reality it’s been just 3 short years since I picked up my first SLK-800A. I was so impressed with the cooling ability that I have used Thermalright heatsinks almost exclusively on my overclocked systems since.

Today I will be taking a look at the new HR-01, an aluminum heatsink incorporating 8, count them, 8 heatpipes in an all-new (for Thermalright) tower design. Thermalright claims the HR-01 is so efficient, it can be used solely as a passive radiator, meaning it requires no fan attached directly to the heatsink. Many companies before have tried the passive tower design... tried and failed to produce a heatsink that even comes close to equaling the performance of a traditional fan-cooled heatsink. However the HR-01 marks Thermalright’s first foray into the passive tower market, and if anyone can make this thing work, and work well, it almost has to be Thermalright, right?