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The
Packaging:::...
The
packaging is clean and simple, and being blue it immediately
gives the impression of cold. Even the fan is mouled in
blue plastic and though it's only psychological there's
no doubt it works to complete the illusion.
The
clear blister packaging lets you see what you're buying
and showcases the biggest selling point which, in this case
is the cleverly machined "X" design. In actual
fact, it looks cleverer than it really is, and because the
machined slots have to be reduced in depth towards the base
to give a large enough are to contact the CPU with, there
are actually quite large volumes of this sink with no fins
and thus almost no surface area to cool it.
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The
Package
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Cooler
- Top
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The
clips are fairly simple spring-loaded affairs that quite
obviously meet Jetart's boasts of "toolless fitting",
though this isn't much of a boast for a socket478 cooler
which are pretty much all toolless anyway.
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Cooler
- Side
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Here
you can see how the slots become shallower towards the bottom,
a necessity for any heatspreader equipped CPU. I'm not sure
why the slots cut in the top and bottom faces (as viewed
below) couldn't have continued right through to the bottom
though. This would have increased the surface area and allowed
more air to make it through to the motherboard directly
around the socket.
It
seems certain that the thinking behind the way the slots
are cut is to direct air away from the area of the motherboard
closest to the socket and to force it out sideways instead.
This seems reasonable at first but in practice, even warm
air that has passed through the cooler is considerably cooler
than the motherboard at close proximity to the CPU and past
experience suggests letting the air pass through and cool
beneath the sink is an advantageous thing rather than something
to be avoided.
This
method of sloping the intenal cuts does however mean that
the airflow is constantly applying a turbulent pressure
to some of the internal faces, and this helps the air to
breach the boundary layer, a kind of heat skin that hugs
the surface and needs pressure or turbulance to break down.
It's
also worth noting that many very efficient coolers in the
past have shared the idea of a solid, central column of
material above the core with fins radiating from it much
like the design of the JAP416A. You may remember the infamous
Thermosonic ThermoEngine which wasn't too dissimilar to
this in design and reigned supreme for a long time, even
after the supposed central heatpipe chamber was craftily
dropped mid-production and clones popped up all over the
show from companies like TiTi and their Dr. Thermal.
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Cooler
- Bottom
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The
base finish is very good with only the very lightest of
machining swirls visible. If you're picky I'm sure a little
light lapping could be applied but for most people there's
not really much point.
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Cooler
- Base Finish
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Jetart
have opted for a seemingly good quality 70mm by 25mm ball
bearing fan. Ball bearings are usually slightly noisier
than sleeve bearings but are believed to have a longer lifespan,
thoush most modern sleeve bearing fans seem to last pretty
well anyway.
A
regular three-pin plug is used to connect directly to a
motherboard header and RPM monitoring is supported.
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Cooler
- Top - With Fan
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There's
a small 3-4mm gap under the fan which reduces the influence
of the deadspot beneath the fan hub/motor assembly. The
deadspot doesn't need to be completely eliminated as there
are no fins in the central portion of the top anyway.
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Cooler
-Assembled
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The
overall effect is that of a simple, clean and elegant looking
cooler that, based on size and design, should offer reasonable
levels of cooling without being hideously over the top in
terms of size, weight, price or complexity. Of course the
proof of the pudding and all that, so let's do some testing.
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