Is flat base always better? and more questions...

[andrewbb923]

Hi guys,

So I am (still) looking for a good heatsink to buy, and I have come across a question:

Is a flat base better in conducting heat?

It would make sense that it does, but then why don't all heatsinks have flat base? And does applying thermal paste reduce the difference in preformance between the two types of base?

I'm sorta looking at Thermalright TRUE black heatsink and Xigmatek Dark Knight. Other than they are black which fits my case and other components, they offer really good cooling down temp. However, one is 30 dollars more expensive than the other...does the small difference in performance really worth the 30 dollars in the TRUE? and I will still have to get a fan for it!

With that being said, I found a site: [iul=http://www.platinummicro.com]www.platinummicro.com[/url] which offers the TRUE for $58.80. Is that reliable?


Thanks ahead, guys!

 

[virus015]

A flat base is always better, but I don't think this is what you are talking about. I am not too sure about the performance differences between heat pipe direct touch heat sinks (the ones where the heat pipes themselves make contact with the CPU) and the normal ones. You apply thermal paste in a different way to HDT coolers to get it to spread evenly, but that's about the only difference. See if you can find the comparative cooling powers of the two heatsinks, my best bet would be to try out frostytech.com as they have a fairly large selection of common heatsinks tested in exactly the same way

 

[andrewbb923]

A flat base is always better, but I don't think this is what you are talking about. I am not too sure about the performance differences between heat pipe direct touch heat sinks (the ones where the heat pipes themselves make contact with the CPU) and the normal ones. You apply thermal paste in a different way to HDT coolers to get it to spread evenly, but that's about the only difference. See if you can find the comparative cooling powers of the two heatsinks, my best bet would be to try out frostytech.com as they have a fairly large selection of common heatsinks tested in exactly the same way

Actually you are right. My question should be: do heatpipe direct touch (HDT) heatsinks perform better than a normal, flat-square base heatsinks?

I am aware of the slight performance difference between the Dark Knight and TRUE black. However, I guess I would like to hear some advice from someone who has hands-on experience on either one to see whether the TRUE worth the $30 extra.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

I still use my original Thermalright Ultra 120 which has a flat base. It was one of the original, if not the original tower style heatsink. I still get outstanding results with it.

If you check out http://www.frostytech.com/top5heatsinks.cfm you will see that it is still one of the top 5 heatsinks for AMD systems. It's been that way for years.