Monsterous, in both performance and dimensions.
If there's one thing ASUS knows other than making beastly motherboards, it's making beastly heatsinks like this almighty space-bandit. Measuring 14 x 11.5 x 10 centimetres and weighing in at 656 grams, this puppy was designed for premium cooling. Or as the box states -- 'dual core overclocking', with 160W of heat being the official cut-off point.The design of this heatsink closely resembles that of the Tuniq Tower which we looked at in issue 63, with heatpipes sprouting up from the cooling block, through two horizontally aligned sets of fins and a vertical fan dropped in the middle. However, rather than opting for merely three two-way split heatpipes, ASUS has equipped it with five two-way split heatpipes, greatly increasing its heat transference properties.Popping it onto Chernobyl, even though the air has to flow through two separate sets of fins, it operated almost silently -- no doubt thanks to the 1800rpm sleeved fan. In an ambient room temperature of 24°C, pumping 80W through it produced a decent 40°C. This is 16°C of cooling efficiency, which is merely one degree above our top performing heatsinks. Given the minimal noise level it runs at, this is all the more impressive. Just to put the packaging to the test, we dialled the heat up to 160W and watched the temperature rise to a rather manageable 55°C.This is a highly efficient, well-designed heatsink that is begging to help out with a good dose of overclocking -- and silently, at that. This goldie also comes bearing blue LEDs, if that's your thing.
Issue: 133 | February, 2012