which heatsink for a blower?

[Rack]

Been watching Hoot's progress with his cage fan for a while now. Thinking about doing it myself since I can get the fan at a discount from the Grainger just down the road. The first thing I asked myself is if the mc462 is the best heatsink for a blower setup. Yes, it has a lot of mass, but it doesn't seem to have that much surface area. The Glaciator is the same way, though it's nice that the bottom's one solid piece. The aluminum Vantec is a nice heatsink (better than both the glac and mc462 in my testing, though just barely edging out the glac), but it's not copper. So I'm looking for a copper heatsink with a fairly thin base, a good bond to the fins and a ton of surface area. Best candidates I've seen are the Zalman 5000, the gladiator and the sk6.
Though the best one could be none of these, and surface area might not be the best thing to look for. What do all you think the best heatsink for a blower is?

 

[Hoot]

I would vote for the SK-6, but the Zalman does tantilize the imagination. I hope to have my hands on an SK-6 within a week or so. My main interest is seeing how it will perform with the Hoot Chute. I will certainly pass along my findings as soon as I have them. The SK-6 will allow me to also finish my own testing of the Glaciator vs MC-462A vs SK-6. I will also present those findings shortly.

Hoot

 

[Paul -The Mad Hatter]

If you were able to make a chute/duct to fit the gladiator, I think that would get you some pretty good cooling. The gladiator has about a square foot of surface area.

 

[Rack]

I estimate the sk6's area over a foot as well. It has 70 fins, in 2 rows of 35, a little over 1 inch wide and little over 1 inch high (from looking at a pic of it). 140 surfaces is well on it's way to having 144 sq in of area. Just need exact measurements. I guess I'll have to buy one and find out.

 

[Kingslayer]

I think my vote would go with the Zalman. From what I have seen, the bigger the fan, the better that heatsink works. I think with a blower, that it's massive surface area that it would outperform other normal heatsinks.

 

[Hoot]

The problem with the Zalman is the plane within which the fins reside. The top fins will shield the bottom fins from most of the air flow as the blower blows straight down on it. I calculated the pin surface area of the MC-462A to be about 132 square inches.

 

[Rack]

Interesting HSF review
Seems the Gladiator comes out on top in this review pretty convincingly. And has the most surface area of all the sinks tested.

 

[William]

what about ducting the Zalman and coming in from the side, noone seems to have tried this.

 

[Hoot]

Rack (Jul 15, 2001 06:28 p.m.):
Interesting HSF review
Seems the Gladiator comes out on top in this review pretty convincingly. And has the most surface area of all the sinks tested.

Interesting Review. I don't know where the guy gets some of his postulates from, but I don't agree with all of them.

Hoot