Quiet Cooling AKASA Style, AK 821Q and Silver Mountain 2Q

Author : Wayne Date : 12th August 2002

 

 

The AK-821Q features 300 pins which are about 2mm in diameter and around 40mm long. Maths was never my strong point so you might want to double check this but I make the surface area to be around ~ ( 0.63cm circumference x 4cm pin length x 300 pins ) = 756 square centimetres which, if I'm right, is not too shabby at all.

Perhaps more importantly by using the particular retaining clip design that they have AKASA were able to place pins where they matter most, smack bang above the core.

The picture below shows how the pins are an integral part of the base and although the picture actually gives the illusion of silver solder on there that's just the reflection from the table top. I can assure you the pins and base are stamped from the same block of aluminium.

And the same high pressure cold forge press that serves to stamp out the the pins also integrates another imprtant feature of the AK-821Q, its copper insert. Unlike some coolers where the copper almost seems loose, the extreme impact forge pressure used virtually fuses the copper into place. You can't see it but AKASA infor me that the top surface of the copper insert features a serrated "shark's tooth" like design that's meant to greatly increase the surface area between the copper and the aluminium thus increasing heat transfer to the pins. Though not mirror smooth I was really impressed by the finish quality of the base, there's some very light machining marks on there but it is incredibly smooth and flat, moreso than a lot of considerably more expensive units we've had in here.

You'll also notice that the AK821 comes with a pre-applied phase change TIM (Thermal Interface material). Big mistake? well not really you see AKASA are very proud of the TIM they've used and spent a lot of time negotiating to get ths particular high performance gum at the right price rather than settle for the inferior stuff. This is very like the TIM that came on the Thermosonic ThermoEngine and that one was impressive enough.

It may be due to the flatness of the base or it may be due to the efficiency of the TIM but in testing I wasn't able to notice a measurable difference betweem the pre-applied TIM and the Arctic Silver 2 I used, not after a few days to settle in of course which is often the case for phase change goop. AKASA are so confident of this TIM that they sent me a few spare strips of it to test out, something I hope to get round to shortly.

 

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