Auras Technology Co. Ltd. are a ISO-9000 Taiwanese thermal solutions company which was originally established
in 1998 to service the needs of the big OEM companies making
laptops. The company later diversified into desktop CPU heatsinks, and now produces about 3M
units a month from its Kunshan factory just outside of Shanghai. Frostytech
visited MSI's Kunshan motherboard factory this past September, and we can tell you first hand that
this area of China a very modern industrial park; about the
size of a city in fact.
The Auras SLC-747 heatsink Frostytech is testing in this review
for you is designed for socket 775 Intel Core 2 Duo and AMD
socket 939/940/AM2/AM2+ processors. As with most heatsinks vying to relace the stock retail thermal solution,
the SLC-747 features 95mm PWM fan that scales in speed from a
quiet 700RPM all the way to 2400RPM when the heat hits the fan. Versatility is the key to
any good heatsink, particularly if you want it to remain
quiet and well performing under load.
While the
Auras SLC-747 has
the potential to be a low noise cooler, it essentially requires a PWM compliant motherboard to facilitate
this. Pulse Width Modulation compatible fans are noted by their 4-pin
power connectors, and what PWM does is enable the BIOS to directly control fan
speed. The impeller speed increases or decreases relative to the processor's
temperature at any given moment.
If the Auras SLC-747 heatsink is used with a motherboard that does not support
PWM (it is backwards compatible with 3-pin fan headers), the fan rotates at full speed.
At full tilt the heatsink produces a moderately audible 52dBA noise - which isn't too
loud, but isn't quiet either.
Auras SLC-747
Heatsink
|
 | |
 |
| HEATSINK
SPECSHEET |
| Manufacturer: Auras |
| Model No.: SLC-747 |
| Materials: Aluminum,
copper base and
heatpipes |
| Fan Mfg: YS Tech YD129025LB |
| Fan Spec: 700-2400RPM, 12V, 0.42A, PWM |
| Fan Dim: 25x95x95mm |
| Heatsink & Fan Dim: 78x109x104mm |
| Weight: 380 grams |
| Includes: mounting hardware, instructions,
thermal compound |
Compatible with Sockets: 754/939/940/AM2 and socket 775 |
| Est. Pricing: $30USD
($30CDN) | |
Auras' SLC-747 heatsink is assembled from
about 50 thin aluminum fins with zippered interlocking tabs, four 6mm diameter copper heatpipes, and
a block of copper for the base. The aluminum fins are rather squat,
measuring ~8m tall, but that gives the heatsink a compact profile. The aluminum fins aren't
nickel plated, so heatpipe-to-aluminum fin joints are not soldered. The copper heatpipes are
soldered to the copper base.
Mounting Brackets from Behind
The Auras SLC-747 heatsink comes with two mounting brackets that allow it to be installed on Socket 775
Intel and socket 939/940/AM2/AM2+ AMD motherboards with a minimum of fuss. The brackets screw
onto the copper base of the Auras SLC-747 with four screws, and after that installation is
a tool-free affair.
Printed instructions are provided, but you won't need them. Faced with a pile
of heatsinks lately that use unnecessarily complicated mounting hardware, Frostytech is really
pleased to come across any heatsink that makes use of the standard AMD/Intel methods of attaching it
to the motherboard.

FrostyTech's Test Methodologies are 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 its performance in the thermal tests!