AMD has confirmed that it is getting into the cooling market, launching its Wraith CPU heatsink and fan assembly as a standalone product.

AMD's Wraith heatsink and fan (HSF) was first unveiled back in January 2016 with the promise of a significant noise reduction for high-power processors compared to the traditional stock cooler design on which the company had been relying for so many years. While its initial video introduction concentrated solely on noise levels, the cooler's retail launch in a bundle with the FX-8370 processor proved that it could hold its own against mid-range, third-party coolers. Later that year the Wraith was added to selected other processor packages, and today the same design with a new retention mechanism can be found cooling various models in AMD's Ryzen family of processors.

Now, though, AMD is breaking with tradition and making the Wraith available standalone - the first time the company has released an air cooler that you didn't have to buy a CPU to acquire. Previously only available with the Ryzen 7 1800X and 1700X, the Wraith Max RGB is now being sold standalone. As with the bundled variant, the Wraith Max RGB includes an integrated RGB LED ring with support for the majority of LED control platforms on the market via either USB or an RGB LED motherboard header. The heatsink also includes a mounting mechanism compatible with both the latest AM4 socket type and the older AM3+ and FM2 motherboards.

AMD has set US pricing for the Wraith Max RGB at $59, which could translate to a £59 price point inclusive of VAT in the UK, putting it head-to-head with some of the more expensive third-party HSFs on the market today. UK availability has yet to be confirmed. Thus far, AMD has not announced plans to release the other Wraith cooler models - the entry-level Stealth, mid-range Spire, and Spire RGB - as standalone models.