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*Pics* The Engineering of a Heatpipe Heatsink...

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enz660

Member
Joined
Jul 1, 2006
Location
Canton, CT
Yes, I do have many threads, and yes, I don't have a life. :beer: I would like to discuss some fan configurations, and a few coolers that I have been looking at for a while. Ive done many modifications to my cooler and managed to drop the temps by 10c because of them. Perhaps we can discuss of different mods that can be done to other coolers? Maybe some people that own these coolers can try them out?

Tuniq Tower (the monster)

weight - 798g

Very smart of them to add a center fan instead of mounting it on the side. It puts the fan to its maximum potential and creates a push/pull config. with one fan. The downside is that its only a 25mm thick slot. Another thing I have been wondering is why they only put three heatpipes into the cooler? Is this really enough? Is there some reason other than pinching pennies for only adding three? I think the only real improvment you could do to this heatsink is lapping it, since the base has almost no finish.
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Scythe Infinity

weight - 960 g

This heatsink is interesting, becuase I believe it can out perform the tuniq with two simple mods. Since the fan has to move air accross a larger space than the tuniq, why not mount an additional fan at the rear of the cooler? Wouldnt this be just as effective and quieter than mounting a loud, high cfm fan at one end? Also, one thing I changed in my AC Freezer 7 Pro is the way its mounted to the mobo. Cheap, weak pins that are pushed into the motherboard MUST GO! Ive seen mods where poeple have mounted it down lik ethe tuniq with metal screws and it improved performance by 3-6c. This heatsink has a nice base, 10 heatpipes, and any fan you choose can be mounted. This heatsink is the heaviest of the three which means it has the most metal for the fan to cool. If we look at the weight of the ultra 120 and the tuniq, they are very similar, but the tuniq has a hair more, and this is maybe why it has a tad bit better cooling performance.
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Ultra 120

weight - 745 g

Second best to the tuniq tower. How do people know this? It doesn't come with a fan? Is it second best with a 100cfm fan or 40cfm fan? Solid construction. One thing I like is that the fins are mot perfectly straight and forces the air to be twisted and pushed against the fins. Why didnt they make it larger? It would have been much better then. So how can we improve this heatsink? Probably by simply adding a powerful fan or two weak ones in push/pull config. It would have been nice to have seen a copper base & heatpipes in this cooler.
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This are my oponions & views. Please feel free to add to how we can improve these or other top end heatsinks. Dont post things like "just go watercooling" becuase thats cheating :p Discuss..
 
Here's the deal on the TuniQ, alot of them need lapping. Not just because of the average finish on the base but because the base is thin, especially where it is notched for the heatpipes to traverse it, when they mount the cooler to the base it can flex. Mine needed quite alot of lapping to get it anywhere near flat. This probably only affected some of them and mine is an early one, maybe they have fixed this I don't know but I'd check it anyway. Lapping was a little tricky, I did mine completely assembled. I could have removed the base and lapped it seperately but I didn't wan't it flexing again remounting it to the heatpipes.
 
at SPCR, they have tested alot of heatsinks (tuniq, infinity, ninja, ultra 120) and they have found that the tuniq is the best, ultra 120 very close to that, the ninja is slightly behind the ultra, and the infinity is behind the ninja, this was tested with all the same fan.

and you realize that ALL thermalright heatpipe heasinks (tower ones and what not, Hr-01, si-128 si-120, xp 120, ultra 120, ultra 90) have nickle plated copper heatpipes and base... they nickle plate so it doesnt tarnish, and for soldering reasons.

also on the ultra 120 2 fans are not needed because the heat pipes create sortof a duct through the fins, and the fins are bent so the air actually "hits" the fins rather than glide over them.
 
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