Cooler Master
Specs Dimensions 50 x 50 x 10 (mm)Rated Voltage 12 VDC
Rated Speed 5500 RPM
Air Flow 11.4 CFM
Noise Level 35 dB (A)
When I first opened this package I though yay finally have a heat sink, which looks 1/2 cool, and this certainly was, and I am pleased to have this in my pc.
This cooler is very interesting, it runs with heat pipes 4 main pipes which are made out of copper these are interlinked in to a copper base, this is an interesting way, the idea is to get heat away from the cpu as quick as possible, this is done by the copper, and then this has the metal strips going across and it has a fan which blows across these plates and cooling.
This unit is designed for overclockers and for servers, and it certainly does the job quickly, the one problem I have is that the copper gets very hot, but the CPU is cool, weird init.
The complete heat sink/fan combo is marginally deeper than normal products: the heat sink provides just under a centimetre of extra depth, and the fan pumps out 11.4 Cubic Feet a minute, which isn't bad going compared to the usual 8CFM of standard 370 fans, but this is low compared to an alpha with a 30CFM output. Noise level is minimal thanks to the ball bearings, which excel when compared to cheaper bearing-less fans.
The installation guide (should you need it) is available from the Cooler Master website (www.coolermaster.com) and is a 2 second stage, you rip the black pad off the bottom and then polish it up (Hexus.net Special) then you put the cooler on the cpu and hold it straight on to the cpu and then slowly clip it down, being careful not to smash the core. The clip arm is marginally shorter than other fans I have used, and it was a fairly tight fit, but once it was secured it wouldn't budge.
I compared this heat sinks with the Alpha and also with a TaiSol heat sink I tested in on a TBird 1Ghz and the results were surprising, especially for such a small cooler. I was a little concerned with the fact it was small but here are the results
TaiSol, 49 Degrees after 10 min loop, and 47 Idle
Alpha, 50 Degrees after 10 min loop, and 48 Idle
Coolermaster, 49 Degrees after 10 min loop, and 47 Idle
Interesting set of results. The Coolermaster is the best cooling for idle cpus, and also shares the lowest one understrain with the Taisol.
So in summary I am not impressed with the alpha at all the TaiSol rocked and cooled more than the alpha, that is probably due to the fact it is one chunky heat sink The Coolermaster heat sink is the best performer but it does get hot, but hey that’s what they are supposed to get hot, and then the fan is supposed to get rid of the heat this is one small flaw I have with it, it didnt seem to remove more heat from the cooler but it cooled the cpu. I personally think that this heat sink with a nice big 60mm Sunon or YS-Tech on it would cool it more.
Pictures of the cooler
Here you can see the fins which help get more air through the heatsink
