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Coolermaster
CH5-5K12 Heatpipe Review
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Author : Wayne
Date : 5th December 2000
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Introduction.
There seems to be somewhat
of an explosion going on in the chip cooling market at the moment
with manufacturers all trying to produce that one killer product
that not only cools well but looks the part too.
The Heatpipe, from cooling
veterans Coolermaster
is one of those rare breeds of product that looks cool simply
as a result of following its design brief, that being to transfer
heat away from your CPU in the most efficient manner possible.
Specifications.
| P/N |
CH5-5K12 |
| Rated
for |
Intel
P III CuMine 1.2 GHz Celeron 700 Mhz and higher
AMD
K6-2/3 up to 550 MHz
K6-2 plus up to 600 MHz and higher
Thunderbird up to 1.2 GHz
Duron 850 Mhz and higher (FC - PGA) |
| Fan
Dimensions |
50x50x10
(mm) |
| Noise
Level |
35db
(A) |
| Fan
Rating (air flow) |
11.4cfm
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| Fan
Rating (voltage) |
12v
DC |
| Fan
Rating (speed) |
5500rpm
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Construction.
On the face of it, Coolermaster
have done almost everything right with this product. For instance,
the base of the Heatpipe is constructed out of copper, one of
the most thermally conductive materials around. Let's look at
some common materials and check out their thermal conductivity.
Higher numbers are better.
Thermal Conductivity,
W/cm-K
| Aluminum |
2.165 |
| Zinc |
1.024 |
| Tungsten |
1.969 |
| Copper |
3.937 |
| Silver |
4.173 |
So as you can see, short
of constructing the Heatpipe from pure Silver, a move which
may have reflected slightly in the price, copper was certainly
a sage choice.
Now I'm no professor of thermal engineering by any stretch of
the imagination, but from what I have read about these materials
here and there, the problem with copper is that while it conducts
heat efficiently, it is a little reluctant to part with it.
Aluminium however conducts less well, but also releases that
heat quicker. The answer? A Hybrid. A copper base, along with
some kind of transport mechanism to get the heat away from the
base as quickly as possible, then a transfer over to Aluminium
cooling fins ready to be dissipated into the air.
As you can see from the
picture above, connected to the copper base are the "heat
pipes". Basically this is two "U" shaped copper
pipes clamped to the base then running upwards through a matrix
of fine Aluminium fins. The arrow shows where coolermaster have
used a thermal epoxy to ensure an efficient contact with the
base. Perhaps we need to look at that a little closer.
Great! what can go wrong?
Top notch materials, a theoretically efficient design and it
looks good too! Well, for a start, we're missing the most important
contact point, the base.
Well, I'm not convinced.
It doesn't seem quite as flat as it could be, and I'm not entirely
certain what that interface material is, but it scratches off
VERY easily, and looks very much like graphite on a thin Aluminium
backing. A potential weak spot? Time will tell.
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