Cooler Master HHC-001

Very competitive performance from a “Heat Pipe” — Joe

SUMMARY: Very competitive performance using a “heatpipe”.

Tony over at PHAM Computer was nice enough to send a sample of the Cooler Master HHC-001. This is labeled as a heatsink with a “Heat Pipe”. If it is, I assume what Cooler Master has done is to develop a heatsink with a base that is a heatpipe.

The advantage is that heat will spread easily and uniformly over the entire base; this then increases cooling efficiency as there are no localized “hot spots” on the base. With heat distributed evenly over the base, each fin sheds the same amount of heat. If you took a thermal image, you’d see an even heat pattern.

This at least is the theory – I can’t tell you for sure (yet) that this is, in fact, really a heatpipe.

This is the other side, showing the easy to grasp clip:

One problem I had with the clip is that I found it hard to remove the heatsink from the socket – the clearance is very tight. The clip is indexed so the base always sits on the same spot every time – this avoids any problems with the base riding up on the socket cam.

The base was not particularly smooth:

I could easily feel machining marks by dragging a fingernail across it – this could stand some lapping.

It appears that the heatpipes are soldered onto the copper base; if this is a true heatpipe, the base itself is hollow; however, I can’t tell if the pipes are drilled into the base or not. I did not drill the base to mount a thermocouple, as it would ruin the heatpipe.

The fins

are soldered onto the copper base – looks like a good fit.

The fan is an Cooler Master 60 mm, model # A6025-68BB-3AN-P1, dual ball bearings rated at 36 cfm, 6800 rpm – basically a Delta 38 clone. I measured fan noise 8″ from the fan intake with a Radio Shack sound meter – 69 dBA – about the same as a Delta 38.

The Cooler Master was first tested on the CPU Die Simulator which gives results that are unaffected by motherboard influences. Tests then were conducted on two other motherboards as examples of what users might see on their systems.

Next, I tested the Cooler Master on an Iwill XP333 that is modified to take direct readings from the die on a Palomino 1200. I also epoxied a thermocouple on the back of the CPU for back readings. Last, I ran it on an Iwill BD133u with a Celeron 1.2 running at 1.6 GHz.

These results place the Cooler Master among the top performers of heatsinks we have tested (Heatsink Rankings HERE).

I do not know for sure how this heatsink is constructed and whether or not the “heatpipe” is for real – that’s the next step. However, performance is quite good. My only concern is that I found it hard to unmount it – in a case, this could be a real problem.

Thanks again to Tony over at PHAM Computer for sending this our way.

Email Joe