It looks like a good idea badly done. The heatpipes should be flattened so they are flush with the contacting surface, not doing that and then suggesting filling in the "valleys" with thermal paste is stupid. Maybe the picture makes it look worse than it is though.
I'd love to see a test of this, have you got $19.99 Hilbert from Santa ? ?:D
It looks impressive, but a much smaller EK cooler could be just as good or good enough and it costs less where I live.
Heatpipes are good at moving the heat, but the surface area to get rid of the heat is not larger then most other coolers.
I really dont understand why MOBO manufactures dont just add an air flow system to the built in heatsink they already have in their MOBOs - I mean that chipset almost always gets one.... how hard is it to add one for the m.2 covers....
I really dont understand why MOBO manufactures dont just add an air flow system to the built in heatsink they already have in their MOBOs - I mean that chipset almost always gets one.... how hard is it to add one for the m.2 covers....
Fill the gaps ? All those gaps with thermal paste ? My god this would need a LOT of paste !
This! The paste conductivity is terrible compared to virtually any metal I know, however it's not air. In the presented design, the alu flat parts would contact the SSD heat spreader (as you can see - the blue plate on photos), and then transfer the heat from above. Which makes no sense.
Copper and heatpipes are just fashionable. They look good, and they can give impression of the performance. A few (or more?) years ago we could see only alu heatsinks and because of alu plasticity, their shapes became more and more complex to provide better surface area and means to effectively transfer heat across as much of it as possible. Thermal conductivity of 401 W/(mâ‹…K) compared to 237 W/(mâ‹…K)? That's much more, and why copper is sometimes used for cooling, but it's not the only factor. It's not 10x more and it's only a mean to transfer the heat so it can be removed by air flowing around it. Surface to cross section ratio and fin length - this is (or should be) a tradeoff, where copper can help (not solve). The history is useful when making purchase decisions.
Because aluminum machining properties are much superior to copper, and the material is cheaper, it was used. I tried milling copper, and in the instant I understood why water blocks are so expensive. It's soft, becomes even softer, and sticks like a glue to the drill.The heat gets insane, and if it sticks too much or temperature rises too much, it makes the drill obsolete. That's why it's so expensive. The metal itself is expensive (and the prices rise), the machines are expensive, bits wear out fast, you need lots of lubricant, and even more time. On top of that you need people who can operate these machines and optimize the process for the best end result, quality, and speed. Yet, the time seems to be the most important here. You need enough production volume to compensate the upkeep and tools cost. That's why we don't see complex shapes outside of small parts and water cooling blocks. Yet, wires, even thick ones are easy to make. You can hammer them down to be flat enough to directly contact the heat source. One can still see them inserted in copper or alu bases - because it makes sense.
You don't need copper to transfer heat in the short distance, and on top of that you have not enough surface area for air to cause a significant heat gradient on the fins. The far parts of a small heatsink can't be much cooler than the base of it. Short copper parts for air cooling are scam. Too bad, that even Thermalright lost credibility for doing that.
If that heatsink had the holding plate upside down, touching the SSD and spreading heat to the pipes from all directions, it would improve the thermal properties, but it wouldn't be chic. Getting rid of the paste all together, removing the stock radiator, and replacing the pad with a high-performance one would make it work better too. Stock / added heat spreader with some reasonable case airflow should suffice too for the most of us. But that doesn't sound fancy.
One can look at the cheap heatinks for commodity electronics, or used in industry. And then look for something which looks like it serves the similar purpose, but tailored for you. Just take a look at older Zalman products, like NB30, NB series, RHS series. These shapes made sense + some anodized colors to pop them up. Something like that, just shorter would be more than enough.
We, as people, don't and can't understand more and more of the stuff that surrounds us. Price, looks, and the usage of "good features" are the most objective factors based on which we estimate quality, applicability and then make purchase decisions. I can see more and more of that, and I'm no exception. Like everybody else, I know a little more in my hobbies and expertise areas. But that knowledge declines fast compared to market and marketing growth. And it makes me a little mad. And a little sad. At the same time. I believe in science above everything. I can't assume it's applied in more and more presentations of the products I used. Except for sales psychology. This product is a manifestation of manipulation over core features. I thought I knew so much and now I feel so lost, depressed. Chasing that knowledge takes effort, time, and you will still lose.
@Ven0m yeah understandable is not just that copper is great at transferring heat but the capacity is rather low after some point it is just more effective to change back to aluminium it might have lower transfer heat rate but it does have higher heat capacity and as far you took care of the transfer you spread it on aluminium , pretty much the stapler design of every tower cooler !
The reason i was surprised of how much thermal paste you need .... is that it will pretty much use a whole 5g tube .... and if it is an expensive one you can potentially spend as much on paste as much as you spend for the cooler , and heatpipes on ssds are already questionable ((and i am very generous saying questionable)) if they are needed ... normally an aluminium heatspreader is more than enough .
really the ones on the mobos are more than fine.