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.