TTIC-NPH-101 P4 Heatsink

March 27, 2004 admin Uncategorized 0

Two fan heatpipe – Joe

SUMMARY: Excellent performance, fairly quiet.

P4H

Weight: 717 grams ex fans

The good guys at Thermal Transtech were nice enough to send the TTIC-NPH-101 heatpipe for a test spin. This is a two fan heatpipe; the major difference from other heatpipes I’ve seen is that the heatpipe is fairly large – it measures 25.4 mm x 100 mm long. There are 34 fins arrayed along the heatpipe, with two fans for cooling (push-pull configuration).

The heatpipe is clearly visible through the copper fins:

Heat Pipe

This is the Socket A version, but the heatpipe is the same.

The heatsink mounts to the motherboard using a backing plate:

Mount

To mount it, you need a Phillips head screwdriver to reach the mounting screws in each corner:

Screwdriver

The bracket mounts to the back of the motherboard and is a snug fit. The screws can only tighten so far, so there is no real danger of unduly flexing the motherboard. Overall, a good system.

There are two 70 x 15 mm fans spinning at 3622 and 3733 rpm. I found them to be tolerably quiet – I measured noise at 59 dBA¹ with a Radio Shack sound meter 8″ from the fan’s intake, substantially less than a Delta 38 (about 69 dBA). It’s also safe to use a motherboard fan headers (3.4 watts each).

The base is not particularly well finished:

Base

When I ran my nail over it, I could feel ridges; a good lapping could improve results somewhat.

THE TEST

I tested the TTIC-NPH-101 on an Acorp 4S845A motherboard with a modified P4 1500 to read CPU case temps.

TEST RESULTS – Motherboard
Heatsink

CPU Case Temp

Ambient Temp

Delta

C/W

MBM Temp

TTIC-NPH-101

28.9 C

19.7 C

9.2

0.16

26 C¹

Delta = CPU temp – Ambient Temp
C/W = Delta / CPU Watts

Interpreting C/W: For every watt (CPUw) that the CPU
consumes, the HSF will limit the CPU’s temperature rise to (C/W x CPUw)
plus the temperature at the HSF’s fan inlet. For example, at an ambient temp of 25 C, a C/W of 0.25 with a CPU radiating 50 watts means that CPU temp will increase 50 x 0.25 = 12.5 C over ambient temp, or 37.5 C. The lower the C/W, the better.

Motherboard results place the TTIC-NPH-101 in the top rank of heatsinks (Heatsink Ranking) tested to date.

CONCLUSIONS

This is the second best performing heatpipe I’ve tested to date. Heatpipes have been used in notebooks for some time and are now successfully migrating to the desktop.

Thanks again to Thermal Transtech for sending this our way.

¹Note that manufacturers measure fan noise usually 3 feet from the fan.

Email Joe