It really doesn’t matter if you want a DuOrb, X5 Orb, MaxOrb, Golden Orb, GunMet Orb, BlueOrb or even a SuperOrb, because one company has them all. Thermaltake has been pimping the Orb series for years now, with no end in sight. Roughly 9 years ago now I had my first Orb encounter after running into one of the original Golden Orb specimens. If I am completely honest this little golden heatsink blew me away, and despite measuring just 4.5cm tall, it was the baddest looking heatsink I had ever seen.

Since then we have reviewed and tested several Orb coolers, many of which have delivered less than stellar performance. However, the recently reviewed DuOrb did change all that, producing some rather impressive results. Despite taking a more serious approach with the DuOrb, Thermaltake did not lose sight of what the Orb series is all about, and that is to develop the most outlandish looking heatsink on the market.

The DuOrb performed on par with other high-end coolers from companies such as Zalman and OCZ, though at $65 US it was far from being a cheap alternative to the standard cooler. Those happy to pay the asking price were left to worry about compatibility, as the DuOrb was quite a large cooler and we ran into a few issues when trying to install it into smaller ATX cases. For those that wanted a DuOrb cooler but simply could not fit it in their case, there is now a more compact yet still very large alternative in the form of the MaxOrb EX.

Thermaltake’s new MaxOrb EX is also slightly cheaper than the DuOrb, and with an adjustable fan speed controller for the 120mm blower, it can also be much quieter. The MaxOrb EX certainly has an interesting installation process, though it does allow the cooler to be installed on both AMD and Intel platforms. The great thing about this new product is that the fan, fan controller, and universal mounts are all included in the bundle. So then let’s check out what the MaxOrb EX has in store for us…