The Official Cooling Thread!

test methodologies are somewhere in there.

and yes they arnt using the true or scyth or tuniq, i negative that against them.

imo frosty have the best teasting of all. and last years hexus roundup.

 

Link please? I couldn't find it.

Yeah I've always been impressed with frostytech reviews.

 

http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/1200/thermal_chamber_heatsink_testing_methods/index.html

 

A methodology in one part, but still no mention of what CPU they used for the tests.

 

sammorris,

Either I misread the article or I'm misunderstanding something, as they don't use an actual CPU, but rather a heater they can precisely control the temperature of!

Russ

 

Hmm. Interesting.

 

sammorris,

Basically all they do is control the amount of heat in a more precise way and then determine how much of it the cooler can remove. As you and I both know, life in the test lab and life under real world conditions are often not the same. When I see someone having heat problems using a TRU or a TRUE, I have to seriously question their cases airflow efficiency! When I see cases with 6 or 8 fans, still having heat problems, I have to question why! It isn't enough to just cool the CPU, but you still have to get all that heat removed from the CPU out of the case. The greatest CPU cooler in the world can't overcome that problem, as it still needs a supply of cooler air or the temps will go up!

Russ

 

Like I say - 600rpm case fans and my CPU runs full load at 42 degrees. So when I see cases with 2000rpm fans, I do wonder...

 

sam,
My cnps 9700 came with a perfect mirror finish (the one i got for 20 bucks).
-im1992

 

im1992,

They don't come lapped so someone did it!

Here's how the Enzitech looks:


I would call that Mirror Finish! LOL!! Works fine with MX-2!

Russ

 

Russ,

I still don't completely agree with what your defination of lapped or lapping is.

just because it is shiny doesn't mean it has been lapped. any nonporous surface can be polished to a sheen. that doesn't mean it has been lapped. lapping is achieved by polishing using a flat surface or block.

 

I doubt that someone else lapped it because it was sealed with the Zalman seal and it didn't look like it was ever opened.... anyways, i uploaded a picture of it on my site (theres nothing else on there).
http://www.geocities.com/im19922000/
-im1992

 

im1992,

very nice.

 

thanks!

 

Mort81,

As I said in my previous post, the only one I've come across to date that wasn't flat was that Scythe. I polish them to a dull shine and it's still pretty easy to tell if it's bad. You can see the distortion in the reflection like I did on the Scythe. A steel ruler and a good eye works pretty good for that! I'm no expert, believe me. I just go with what seems to work best! Arctic Cooling just makes it easier for me by having very flat heatsinks and I use them about 95% of the time. Of course, now you realize that the next 6 I see will be terrible! LOL!!

Russ

 

I've seen heatsinks that pulled that off, but look really closely at them and you can see the imperfections. They're very slight, but they're there.

 

i will pull it out and do the razor test once i get home in a couple of days.
-im1992

 

sammorris,

It's pretty simple. I check for flatness with a straightedge, and polish it if it's flat! If there's any distortions in the reflection, then it's not as flat as it could be! If it was real bad I would take it into the shop and surface it. Frankly, I don't see a lot of difference in my temps. I suspect that this is because my temps are very low to begin with.

As far as the debate as to whether a dull shine or mirror finish is best, my guess is that the mirror finish would be better, as that would present the absolute maximum unbroken surface contact area to the CPU heat spreader. I know someone raised the idea that if it was mirror finished it would squeeze all the thermal compound out, but that's not true as there's more than enough surface tension to hold the compound, so more than enough would remain to do the job, even with MX-2, which is thinner than most other compounds. I asked the the metallurgy guys at work and they all say the same thing, "the smoother the finish the better the heat transfer!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

Fair enough. I guess I'm too easily swung by the naysayers!

 

so i shouldnt get rid of the mirror finish???