Earlier today I recieved the Taisol K7-462
(CMK702151A) heatsink from
our newest sponsors, Xoxide, so I thought
i'd give it a test and compare it to my current heatsink and fan combination.
This heatsink is for both the Socket A platform and the Socket 370 platform,
although untested by me, Taisol state that it can be used on either socket without
any problems. On the manufacturers site
and the packaging it is said that this heatsink can support upto and beyond
the XP2200+ processor. It is a rather odd looking thing as you will see as you
read further into the review, it is essentially comprised of two main heatsink
parts, linked together with 3 heatpipes with a fan in the middle.


This is how the 'sink arrives, in the packaging.
Here are the specifications as stated on the manufacturers website:
Fan Size: 70 x 70 x 15mm, 1 ball
Rated
Voltage: 12 VDC
Input
Current: 0.14 (Max. 0.24) A
Input
Power: 1.68 (Max 2.88) W
Fan
Speed: 3300 RPM
Max
Air Flow: 28.1 CFM
Fan
Life: 40,000 Hours
Noise
Level: 30 DBA
Connector:
3 Pin-Molex
Approved:
UL,CSA,VDE,CE
Heatsink
Material: AL6063-T5 and Heatpipe
Dimensions:
90 x 86 x 86mm
Weight:
330gm

In the pack you get the actual heatsink and fan combination, an
instruction leaflet showing you how to fit the thing safely, and a sachet of
generic thermal paste. Unfortunatley I have had to use this generic paste for
this review as I have no Arctic Silver to hand.

Here are the pipes going into the large heatsink section.

Here you can see all the fundamental parts of the unit; you have
the main radiator like section at the top, the fan in the middle and the smaller
heatsink part at the bottom. Joining the larger and smaller heatsink parts you
can see the actual heatpipes themselves. From the size of the heatsink in contact
with the CPU, I think its safe to say that a lot of trust is put on the heatpipes,
because if they fail that little heatsink is not going to cope. I have been
referring to the copper pipes on the side of the unit as heatpipes for the duration
of this review, "What's a heatpipe!" I hear you cry (or not), well
i'm going to explain.
A heatpipe usually consists of (it does in this case) three main
parts, the pipe itself which is sealed at both ends, a heat trasfer medium such
as methanol, water, ammonia etc, and an internal wick to allow the liquid to
move around. The wick transports the liquid to the evaporator end of the pipe
(the part nearest the CPU) where it is vapourised by the heat from the CPU seeing
as the liquid is colder than the CPU. The vapour rises to the top of the pipe,
where the pipe is colder, and condenses, losing the heat energy it picked up
from the CPU. Now the liquid will fall back down and the cycle will repeat again.
Still with me? OK, lets move on then. ;)

A top-down view of the unit, you can see all the fins of the large heatsink
part and the fan underneath.

Here you can see the bottom of the unit upon arrival, the blue cover is to protect
the copper surface below.


Heres some shots of the fan included with the unit. You should be able to tell
from the top picture that this is a Delta fan. Delta are usually thought of
as making extremely loud, high powered fans, but this one is acceptable, it
can barely be heard over the noise of hard drives etc, while still pushing a
resonable amount of air.


Thats what the bottom surface of the unit looks like once the
blue cover has been removed. It has a nice, smooth finish that is good but could
still be improved quite a bit with a bit of lapping.
Now on to the testing. All temperatures are an average over 2
minutes and are recorded using Motherboard
Monitor 5. The side was left off the case and the case temperature was a
constant 35 degrees centigrade throughout all the tests (this room is very warm).
The CPU in question is a 1Ghz AMD Thunderbird, overclocked to 1.2Ghz.
This is my stone-age heatsink and fan combination. It is an old
Coolermaster heatsink with a Delta 60mm fan running at 7v to reduce noise. As
you can see, it's very dusty, which is probably making it lose some, if not
most of its efficiency.


It's also pretty puny compared to this Taisol.
The temperatures that I recorded for the Coolermaster heatsink
are:
Idle:
49 degrees centigrade
Full
(Seti) Load: 53 degrees centigrade
Now to install the Taisol onto my motherboard, it's a MSI KT3
Ultra (also covered in dust). I found installation to be a breeze, this unit
uses all 6 lugs of the socket, to reduce strain on singular lugs and it holds
the unit on with a lot more stability which could prevent an unnecessary core
crushing incident. The only awkward part of installation is getting the first
clip on, because you have to bend it down, hold it there and hook it over. Once
that is done, the clip on the other side is very easy to secure, it can be done
with just a screwdriver. The place for the screwdriver is positioned in such
a way to push the clip out, away from the heatsink as well as down, so it goes
on with minimal pressure, reducing the overall risk to your motherboard.

One thing I found when using this heatsink with my particular
motherboard is that the heatpipes are very close to the ATX power socket on
the board, it didn't cause a problem in the end, but might be worth noting that
it's a pretty close call.



Looks pretty impressive when installed aswell - good if you have a window in
your case.
The temperatures that I recorded for the Taisol K7-462 heatsink
are:
Idle:
39 degrees centigrade
Full
(Seti) Load: 42 degrees centigrade
Overall I think this heatsink is well worth the money, first of
all because it is a great performer even without Arctic Silver thermal paste,
I can imagine it being a lot better with the use of that. I will post temperatures
in the forums when I get hold of some Arctic
Silver to test with. Secondly it is a very unique piece of kit and would certainly
look the part in any case that can show it off.
If you are interested in purchasing one of these heatsinks, they
are 33.99USD on Xoxide
computers. If you have any questions or comments about this review, please post
them in the forums as usual. |