Most heatsinks emphasize the downward directed airflow that is useful for cooling all the little electrical bits around the CPU socket on a motherboard. As you're probably well aware, motherboard manufacturers like ASUS, MSI and Gigabyte are slapping tiny passive heatsinks on the MOSFETs and power circuitry that ring the processor, and much larger passive heatsinks on the northbridge chipset.... all of which is designed to make use of that exhaust airflow from a CPU heatsink. It's a parasitic relationship that many a motherboard is built upon, and it's a good one because no extra noise is generated in the PC case from small chipset fans.

The Triton 77 heatsink takes the opposite approach, its 92mm fan is positioned so it blows up and away from the CPU socket. The packaging suggests this will "drop VRM temperatures by 10-15°C" - if that's true then we can only assume it will likely raise the ambient temperature of the air entering the Triton 77 heatsink by a similar degree...

The ASUS Triton 77 heatsink is one of the latest processor thermal solutions to come from motherboard manufacturing giant ASUS. The heatsink is equipped with a Sunon MagLev 92mm vapo-bearing PWM fan which runs at a very quiet 2300RPM. Standing a moderate 125mm tall, the Triton 77 heatsink has five copper heatpipes spread across its curved array of nickel-plated aluminum fins, and weighs 505 grams. The bulk of this heatsink is elevated 55mm above the CPU socket for good component clearance, and it's compatible with Intel 775 and AMD (939/AM2) processors so you can migrate from one CPU platform to another without having to buy another heatsink.

The Asus Triton 77 heatsink is pretty new so it is just making its way into stores as of this writting. Expect it to retail for around $38USD ($38CDN) at Newegg and NCIX.

Asus Triton 77 Heatsink

heatsink specsheet manufacturer: asus model no.: triton 77 materials: nickel-plated aluminum fins, copper heatpipes and base fan mfg: sunon maglev kde1209ptv3 (pwm) fan spec: 2300rpm, 12v, 0.09a fan dim: 25x92x92mm heatsink & fan dim: 125x103x121mm weight: 505 grams includes: multi-socket mounting hardware, thermal compound, instructions. Compatible with Sockets: 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+, LGA775 Est. Pricing: $38USD ($38CDN)

For the Triton 77, Asus selected Sunon’s 92mm MagLev fan. The Sunon MagLev design uses magnetic levitation forces to create a zero friction environment - on other words the fan propeller is suspended in air during rotation so that the shaft and bearing do not come into direct contact with each other to create friction. This design gives the fan high temperature endurance that results in long life (50,000 hours) and little noise generation in the Triton 77 heatsink.

Here is an example to help you understand the principles behind the MagLev fan.
"When a toy spinning top is thrown, the top continues to accelerate even as it hits the ground. During this acceleration the top tilts and sways until a consistent speed is obtained. At this point, the top will balance itself - e.g. the swaying and tilting have faded - and become fixed perpendicular to the ground. This is the simple concept behind the Sunon MagLev."

"...regardless of the mounting angle the fan, the shaft will always rotate around a fixed point and at a constant distance from the bearing without coming in contact with it to produce friction or mechanical noise. The problem of bearings being worn down into an oval shape or horn aperture after long use is effectively resolved."

The rest of the ASUS Triton 77 heatsink is pretty standard stuff. The five copper heatpipes are soldered to the base and fins, and the curvature of the aluminum fins forms a natural 13mm plenum to further reduce noise. 

The Asus Triton 77 heatsink ships with two CPU brackets, one pair for Intel Socket 775 and one for AMD K8 processors (754/939/940/AM2).

The Intel socket 775 clips use the standard push-to-lock plastic clips that insert into the four motherboard holes around the processor socket. For AMD Athlon64 processors, the heatsink makes use of the central lug on the socket 754/939/940/AM2 heatsink retention frame. A cam lever at one end of the clip applies pressure to the heatsink base directly. Both clips are tool free to install on the processor.

Base Finish and Flatness

Flipping a heatsink over to inspect the business end is often a simple indicator of overall cooler quality. More practically speaking, a heatsink is in many ways only as effective as the contact it makes with the processor - the flatter and smoother the better. Base finish is one of the criteria that Frostytech measure in the course of evaluating heatsinks, and it involves two distinct aspects.

Surface Finish is the first; this is calculated with the aid of Surface Roughness Comparator that has a cross section of common machine surface finishes and their numerical surface roughness equivalents in microinches. The second is Surface Flatness. This is tested with an engineers straight edge or proven flat surface, in two axis.

The base of the Asus Triton 77 heatsink is a nickel plated pad of copper with a sanded surface texture. There is 3mm of copper between the heatpipes and CPU, and a contact area of just 29x31.5mm in area. This is significantly smaller than the 37mm square AMD CPU integrated heatspreader. Surface roughness is ~32 microinches, and the base is flat in both axis.

FrostyTech's Test Methodologies are outlined in detail here if you care to know what equipment is used, and the parameters under which the tests are conducted. Now let's move forward and take a closer look at this heatsink, its acoustic characteristics, and of course its performance in the thermal tests!