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More info?)
My vote goes with what Paul says.
The thermalright XP-120 is, I have no doubt, the undisputed champion of
heat sinks.
Here's the rub:
While the Aero-Cool design is neat to look at and seems to make sense,
looks can be decieving. A heatsink, to work best, needs plenty of a number
of things.
1) Lots of radiation surface area designed to best interact with airflow
(note that I said *interact*, you want some turbulence!)
2) Optimal design to Draw as much heat away from the CPU surface as fast
and responive as possible.
3) Over-all mass. As much literal mass in contact with the CPU as is
reasonable. Many heat pipe heatsinks fail to be designed in recognition of
this necessity.
4) Ideal heat conductive material. Silver is best, copper next, Aluminum
follows, but depending upon the aluminum, some types are better than
others!
5) Optimal shape and design. The shape should be similar to the
radiation, conduction, and convection it tries best to produce, a fan shape
is one good shape, a circle is another.
6) Best method of making the fins, materials bonding. Shivving is one
example of a good way. Welding can be ok, if it is done right, but not all
heat sinks are really done right.
7) Materials design that siphons the heat away by taking advantage of
particular materials.
8) Top notch "mating to the surface of the CPU" surface smoothing. The
better the finish, the more the useful contact area! Many dedicated
overclockers spend many hours lovingly polishing their Heat sink's mating
surface.
9) Designes built to not overload the motherboard or produce lever-type
serparation due to poor mounting & weight considerations.
So, let's see:
1) The XP-120 has a LOT of fins. More than almost any other heatsink.
2) The XP-120 uses a copper to aluminum design and a heat pipe design that
both remove heat very well.
3) The XP-120 is just about THE most massive heatsink made, there is a
significant block of copper and aluminum in contact with the CPU surface
area. Much more than other heat pipe designs.
4) The XP-120 is made from Copper and a quality aluminum. More on why
much of it is aluminum later, but suffice it to say that the aluminum does
a great job giving up heat to the air.
5) The XP-120 is shaped like a hand-fan, lots of mass in the base and
center, and lots of fins radiating out in a way that optimizes usable
surface area but not above or below on the motherboard as that would
obstruct installation in many cases where circular heatsinks have problems.
6) The XP-120 was designed to make sure that there is not anything
impeding the flow of heat into the fins due to poor bonding. The fins are
soldered to nickle plated copper and the job is well done. Shivving of a
single material might be better in this regards, but there is an advantage
of using aluminum for the fins.
7) I don't know the engineering particulars, but, as is the testimony of
everyone who has bought and installed the XP-120, the materials design
lends itself to the best there is (IMHO and many others too).
8) The XP-120 comes for a very good finish to the contact surface, one of
the best there is from the factory.
9) The XP-120 mounts a little difficult according to *some*, but it mounts
very securely, well enough that the top (with respect to the floor)
contacts as well as the bottom, in other words, it does not lever-away from
the CPU surface, a MAJOR issue with many heatsinks that people are using if
you follow threads. They used aluminum partly for this reason, it is
lighter, so where the massive-block is not (that being of copper, nickle
plated), aluminum is used.
10) The XP-120, I might add, uses heat pipes in a more scientific way that
they have proven in previous products produces top results.
Now, though I don't want to be an advertisement for the product, from what
I have been reading you can't do any better than the thermalright XP-120,
it might take more than 10 degrees off of a stock HSF's performance.
Furthermore, It is designed to use a 120mm fan, which means quiet! You can
run a big fan slower and get great airflow. A plus is that it is designed
to work across several different platforms and there is a good chance that
it might work for future processors, as some of their other Heatsinks do.
It costs a lot, but if you plan on overclocking, especially with an Intel
(if that is the way anybody is going), this will absorb heat
instantaneously better than any other heatsink made, and transmit it to air
better too.
Too many who use it confirm this. I have not read or heard of anyone
saying anything less than a rave over this thing.
On Thu, 24 Mar 2005 08:12:02 -0500, Paul wrote:
> In article <0wp0e.4151$Ln.185571@ursa-nb00s0.nbnet.nb.ca>, "Andre
> LaFramboise" <razz@ns.sympatico.ca> wrote:
>
>> AEROCOOL HT-101 CPU COOLER SOCKETA S478 COPPER 2500RPM 29.6CFM 22DBA /W 4
>> BLUE UV LEDS
>> has anyone tried this cooler ,what do you think
>
>
http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/aerocool_ht-101.php
>
>
http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=2603719
> "Doesn't compete with SP-97/SLK-900a despite what Aerocool says"
>
> I am not a fan of tower coolers, because when the computer case
> is upright, the tower is sticking out sideways, and you have
> all that weight twisting downwards. Better to get a flatter
> cooling solution that keeps the weight closer to the motherboaard.
> Like an XP-120 or a Zalman AlCu 7000/7700 etc.
>
> And, in terms of cooling prowess, you want a "degrees C per Watt"
> rating. A good heatsink/fan is about 0.2C/W or so. The
> heatsink/fans that come with processors, can range all the way up
> to 0.5C/W (higher numbers are worse).
>
> Some places to look - there are plenty of other sites:
>
>
http://silentpcreview.com/section12.html
> (scroll down...)
>
http://www.overclockers.com/topiclist/index15.asp#HEATSINK%20REVIEWS%20AND%20TIPS
>
>
> Paul
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