ThermoEngine - black or silver, does it make a difference?

[Duck Hook]

With the recent developments around the ThermoEngine, is there any particular distinguishing characteristics of the early models and the revised ones?

Does anyone have a black anodized one that has the heat pipe inside?

I ordered a black one from Coolerguys.com and is there any chance in hell that there are still original heat piped versions in ciruculation at the retail level?

 

[Megahurtz]

As far as what version of the Thermo-Engine you'll receive, I don't know.

As far as black or silver anodiziation is concerned, as the vast majority of the cooling efficacy of modern heatsinks equipped with fans is due to forced convection, rather than radiation, or thermal emissivity..this should play a really minor role.

T

 

[Hoot]

I recall reading a review where the silver was tested alongside the anodized model and the anodized unit was something like 1C better. Both were hollow core.

Hoot

 

[LordSmack]

The black anodized one will run 1-2* cooler. It was reviewed ad [H]ard OCP and somewhere else to. They had some rocket scientist explain that the anodizing process increases the surface area by a small amount thereby giving the HFS more area to disipate heat. also you need to get an OLD thermoengine the new ones have a solid core and don't cool as well.

 

[Nagorak]

Reviews of both show them cooling identically. I suspect this will all be cleared up tomorrow when Joe posts the results of his test on the main page.

 

[Colin]

Nagorak,

Where did you find reviews of both types?