Author: Spot Posted on: 9/23/2001 Sponsor: PCNut Discuss: In the forums

A Quiet Conquering Copper has integrated itself into the world of heatsinks over the last year while Aluminum heatsinks have quietly taken a step out the back door. Some of the earlier Copper models released have included circular copper plates inserted into the base, and there have been entire copper bases with Aluminum fins. Nowadays, the complete Copper heatsink is really the only way to fly if you are serious about your CPU cooling. Today we are going to look at two all-copper heatsinks from Vantec, the CCK-6027D and it's older brother the CCK-6035D. Taking A Closer Look Both heatsinks are equipped with the micro fin design, which allows for more fins and an overall larger surface area, therefore creating better heat dissipation as air passes over them. The CCK-6035D is taller than the CCK-6027D model by 10mm (or about .394 of an inch for the "metric-challenged"). Both models also use a "Two Ball Bearing" fan, which generally has a longer MTBF (Mean Time Before Failure) than sleeve bearing fans. The specs don't show it, but during my testing I noticed the CCK-6035D fan was rotating at approximately 7336 RPM's while the CCK-6027D fan was only running at 6250 RPM's. You should also note (from the specs below) the CCK-6035D has a 0.29°C/W Thermal resistance while the smaller CCK-6027D has a rating of 0.32°C/W. If you're not aware, C/W stands for degrees Celsius per Watt and the lower the number - the better (theoretically). When looking to purchase a heatsink, one thing you should keep in mind is how the fan is mounted. Some companies like to screw the fan right into the fins of the heatsink, which can cause several problems. If you like to change fans often to help increase cooling, the fins will eventually "stay bent" leaving no solid area to mount the fan. This can cause vibrations where the heatsink and fan meet, not to mention a disruption of the airflow from original design. I was happy to see the CCK-6027D and the CCK-6035D fans mount into the outside Copper casing and not into the fans themselves. Here are the complete specs for both heatsinks I ripped right from Vantec's site: Heatsink: Recommended For: Intel PIII Coppermine(FC-PGA)& Tualatin 1.13 GHz and higher AMD Thunderbird(Socket A or 462)up to 1.4 GHz and higher Intel PIII Coppermine(FC-PGA)1.13 GHz and above AMD Thunderbird(Socket A or 462)1.33 GHz and above Clip Material SK7 SK7 Heat Sink Material: AL 6063T5 & Copper AL 6063T5 & Copper Heat Sink Dimension: 65.0 x 65.0 x 29.0 (mm) 65.0 x 64.0 x 39.0 (mm) Fan Dimension: 60.0 x 60.0 x 25.0 (mm) 60.0 x 60.0 x 25.0 (mm) Outline Dimension: 65.0 x 65.0 x 54.0 (mm) 78.0 x 64.0 x 64.0 (mm) Bearing Type: Two Ball Bearing Two Ball Bearing Clip: CLP508 CLP508 Weight: 350.0 (gm) 386.0 (gm) Thermal Resistance: 0.32°C/W 0.29°C/W Before we get into the testing, here's a few more pictures to show the shiny finish, the bottom, and the micro fins.         The Fun Part I installed each of the heatsinks on a 1.4GHz T-Bird / Epox 8K7A system running Win98SE and let them idle for one hour. The case was closed, no other fans were installed except the PSU fan and the room temperature was 72 F. I used Epox's Unified System Diagnositc Manager (USDM) to record the temperature and voltages since the 8K7A has a thermister mounted in the bottom of the CPU socket. ANYWAY - let's continue... I'm sure you don't really care about idle temps right? Well, after the idle temperature recordings were taken, to heat this baby up the CPU voltage was upped by .1v, and the FSB was increased to 147 (from 133). SETI@Home was run for one hour at normal priority and the temps were taken again. Here's how everything panned out: Heatsink Temp @ 1400 MHz Temp @ 1543 MHz CCK-6027D 45 C / 113 F 57 C / 134 F CCK-6035D 44 F / 111 C 55 C / 131 F Final Thoughts Strictly from looking at the specs of the two heatsinks, one would think there would be a larger difference in temperature than what was shown in these tests. The CCK-6035D is quite a bit taller, has a higher RPM fan, and lower Thermal Resistance than it's smaller sibling, the CCK-6027D. At default CPU speeds, the difference was only one degree Celsius and when pushing the FSB, the difference between the two only grew to 2 degrees Celsius. Of course, two degrees will mean more to some people than it will to others. Also remember, these temperatures were taken with all case fans off, and the case completely closed. I wanted to make sure these coolers worked well in a real-life situation, and not with the side of the case off (like I normally have it). At PC-Nut, the CCK-6027D is currently going for $24 USD and the CCK-6035D is coming in at $26 USD, which is another positive for both coolers. I have a hard time justifying spending 50+ dollars for a quality heatsink as I'm sure many of you do. Both heatsinks performed well, the price is right, and the fans do not blow your eardrums out with extreme noise. The fans actually being mounted in solid material is a bonus in my book because I hate when they are just screwed into the fins. I feel Vantec has done a good job with both the CCK-6027D and the CCK-6035D coolers. They are definitely quality heatsinks that an overclocker should not be afraid to use.

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Published on: 2004-02-18 (5491 reads)