cnc-cpu ST80A

In this day and age of super hot processors and copper coolers, it's refreshing to see an HSF that shuns the use of Copper and instead uses trusty Aluminium.

In this day and age of super hot processors and copper coolers, it's refreshing to see an HSF that shuns the use of Copper and instead uses trusty Aluminium. Actually, 'refreshing' probably isn't the right word - damn stupid is a better phrase. Yes, we're being harsh already, so you can probably guess where this review is headed...

For an Aluminium heatsink, this beast is surprisingly heavy, weighing in at a chunky 380grams. This is probably a direct result of this HSF being damn huge, so you'll need to make sure you're going to have enough room on your motherboard to fit it.

According to the Aussie maker, the special feature of this product is the way it's built. The CNC in the name stands for Computer Numeric Control, and refers to the fact that each HSF is carved out of a solid block of Aluminium by a computer-controlled machining process.

It's certainly a bizarre looking heatsink, with hundreds of 'tunnels' bored through the heatsink, perhaps in an effort to improve the airflow through the unit. The maker also claims that it's 'Non - Audible (depending on thermal requirements and fan used)' - yet it ships with a Delta FFB0812EHE 5,700rpm 80mm fan that has to be the loudest we've ever heard.

We checked out the Socket A version of this heatsink, and it had a strange mounting mechanism. You slide the two lugs over the usual clip on the socket, and then have to remove a pin from each clip. This in turn releases a couple of springs, theoretically tightening the heatsink mount. We say 'theoretically', because it still seemed to be a very loose fit.

This might account for its lacklustre performance.
Chernobyl was fired up at 80W with the Athlon CPU die in place, and an ambient temperature of 19ºC. We compared it against our current favourite, the Thermalright SLK-800, expecting the worst. How could an Aluminium HSF with a fairly loose fit ever compete? And we were 100% correct. While the SLK-800 came in at a chilly 46ºC, the ST80A peaked out at 21ºC hotter, reaching 67ºC. Not good.

With this performance we can't recommend this product at all. It's a shame, as we all want Aussie manufacturers to succeed, but they're going to have to do better than this.