The Basics:
With the box unpacked, the first thing to investigate is the cooler itself. The design is very reminiscent of the current Thermalright CPU coolers... shiny nickel plated surfaces, heatpipes for cooling, and a very industrial (but stylish) looking arrangement of the radiator and heatsink.
The cooling for the V1 Ultra is provided by an 80mm fan, but it doesn't look like most units I have ever used. This one has a very low profile design (15mm high), and sports a total of eleven (11) fan blades. Given the published specifications for the fan (listed previously), it obvious that Thermalright intended to maximize airflow and minimize noise through the use of this special fan. The one typical thing about this fan is the 3-pin power lead, which will allow for speed sensing.
As seen in the above right image, what will be the bottom side of the cooler features a low profile array of heatsink fins. This rather large area will help dissipate heat directly from the GPU core, while the three heatpipes transport even more heat to the radiator mounted on the other side of the card. The specifications mention that two 80mm fans can be used on this cooler, and the threaded holes in each corner of this surface could be used to mount a fan like the one used on the radiator.
The below left image shows a detailed view of the radiator, where you can see the three heatpipes entering the tight array of fins through which the cooling air is intended to flow.
The base of the cooler is shown in the above right image. It is smooth and flat, but does not have a mirror finish like many coolers today. I have found this to be the norm with Thermalright products, and my experience tells me that they know what they are doing in designing coolers, and will assume this base is more than adequate for efficient cooling.
