At
Computex this past June, Frostytech walked through the halls of
the Nangang exhibition hall in Taipei Taiwan looking for
new and notable heatsinks... and we found lots and lots. From what we witnessed
firsthand, two new CPU cooling trends had emerged - exposed heatpipe bases and
split fin bodies.
The heatsink industry is pretty cut throat, so when one manufacturer gets a
good idea, that idea is quickly appropriated by every manufacturer in one format or another.
There's an interesting story about fake heatsink prototypes at Computex.... but that's a
tale for another day.
In any event,
as with anything new and revolutionary the devil is in the details. This is
certainly the case with the new Evercool Transformer 6 heatsink - itself
a fairly unique approach.
Evercool has built the Transformer 6 out
of three individual aluminum cooling fin segments, toped by a glistening silver 120mm
fan mounted on vibration
absorbing rubber posts. The arrangement of the six heatpipes is fairly unique, but more on
that in a moment. Weighing in at 873 grams, the Transformer 6 heatsink is compatible with
Intel socket 775 and AMD socket 754/939/940/AM2 processors. As of this writing Intel's socket
1366 is not supported. Its retail price is expected to be in the region of $48CDN ($48USD).
Evercool
Transformer 6 Heatsink
|
 | |
 |
| HEATSINK SPECSHEET |
| Manufacturer: Evercool |
| Model No.:
Transformer 6 |
| Materials:
aluminum fins, copper base and heatpipes |
| Fan Mfg: Evercool
EC12025L12EA-CL |
| Fan Spec: 1200-1800RPM, 12V,
0.27A |
| Fan Dim: 25x120x120mm |
| Heatsink & Fan Dim:
126x145x160mm |
| Weight: 873 grams |
| Includes:
Mounting bracket, thermal compound, fan speed controller,
instructions |
Compatible with Sockets: 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+, 775 |
| Est. Pricing: $48USD
($48CDN) | |
The Evercool Transformer 6's 120mm fan is affixed to the
heatsink with four vibration absorbing rubber mounting posts. The rubber posts fit through the
standard screw holes in the vaneaxial fan frame, and keep the
fan elevated just above the tips of the aluminum fins. If the fan motor
happens to develop vibrations down the road, the rubber 'shock absorbers' can reduce that
from becoming noise.
Out of the box we noticed that the Transformer 6
heatsink had a visible bend in the heatpipes to one side. The mass of the fan
and aluminum fins is only supported by four heatpipes, so it doesn't take much
effort to flex. Resist the urge to bend the upper portion of the heatsink back
to level, you may crack the heatpipes in doing so. The bending shouldn't affect
performance.
Installation Hardware
Evercool's Transformer 6 heatsink
is compatible with Intel socket 775 and AMD socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+
processors. The heatsink uses two metal brackets which attach to the base that allow it to
mesh with an Intel/AMD rear motherboard support plate. The screws holding the heatsink in place are threaded from the rear, into
the upper bracket. This can make installation a little tricky. On
top of the juggling act, you'll also need to remove the motherboard from the computer
chassis. Also supplied with the heatsink is a syringe of good quality thermal
compound and a small manual fan speed controller.
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!
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