The Verax Helado PWM-T
heatsink is the newest uber-quiet heatsink from the German manufacturer Verax Ventilatoren
GmbH. The Helado is a departure
for the company in some respects because it does not utilize Verax's patented CAIRdB fan. So rather than a CFD
based impeller that looks like it should be on the tail end of a nuclear
submarine, we find a rather plane vaneaxial fan, albeit a very quiet one. Ahh
the power of dual ball bearings. The
fan supports Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) fan speed control via a 4-pin power
connector which is backwards compatible with the legacy 3-pin variety.
Comprised
of a nickel plated copper base block and an array of rather thick stacked
aluminum fins which have also been nickel plated,
the Verax Helado PWM-T is a thin tower
of a heatsink. Four parallel rows of 6mm diameter "U" shaped copper heatpipes join the base of
the heatsink to its's cooling fins with soldered joints.
The Helado
PWM-T heatsink installs onto
socket 775 Intel Pentium D processors via a set of Intel push-pin retention
brackets. With the LGA775 bracket removed the heatsink will fit just as easily
onto socket 754/939/940 and AM2 AMD Athlon64 processors with a spring clip that
locks onto the center tab of either style of K8 heatsink retention frame. The
rigidity of the clip against torsional bending leaves something to be
desired however. A couple other insightful thermal design aspects come into play
to create a nice low noise thermal solution.
The Verax Helado PWM-T retails for
about $60USD through North American distributor VeraxFans.com. There has always been a high premium on low
noise cooling and that trend isn't certainly isn't slowing down.
Verax Helado
PWM-T Heatsink
|
 | |
 |
| HEATSINK
SPECSHEET |
| Manufacturer: Verax GmBH |
| Model No.: Helado PWM-T |
| Materials: Nickel plated copper base, heatpipes and aluminum fins. |
| Fan Mfg: Xinruilian Xfan RDH9025B |
| Fan Spec: 1100-2800RPM, 12V, 0.23A BB |
| Fan Dim: 25x92x92mm |
| Heatsink & Fan Dim: 133x104x81mm |
| Weight: 540 grams |
| Includes: Printed
instructions, socket 775 and socket 939/AM2 mounting bracket, thermal
compound |
Compatible with
Sockets: 754/939/940/AM2 & 775 |
| Est. Pricing: $89USD
($95CDN) | |
Best of all for users shopping out low noise cooling
solutions, the 92x92x25mm vaneaxial fan is held in place with four rubber
vibration mounting posts, not screws. The rubber
posts lift and separate the fan from the adjoining aluminum
fan shroud. This helps to reduce fan-motor vibrations from being transmitted to the
heatsink. Veraxfans.com have packs of the anti-vibration rubber fan posts up for grabs, which is great cause these
little things fit just about every kind of fan out there.
Apart
from one really basic thing Verax
could have done to the Helado to reduce potential rattles, which we'll look
into momentarily, the heatsink is primed for low noise operation.
FrostyTech's K8 Test Methodology is outlined in detail
here if you care to know what equipment is
used, and the parameters under which the tests are conducted. Now let's move
forward and take a closer look at this heatsink, its acoustic characteristics,
and of course it performance in the thermal tests!
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