A few months ago we introduced you all to a new Korean heatsink manufacturer by the name of Tocools. The design of their first heatsink was pretty interesting, and the performance a little higher than we expected for a straight aluminum cooler. However, the heatsink was handicapped by a bad clip design, and so it was touch and go as far as installation. Anyway, this time around we are looking at the Tocools A1M which has a slightly better clip mechanism and a more traditional extruded/machined fin design.

So far all the Tocools heatsinks we have reviewed thus far have one impeccable aspect - the base. For a simple design, and a small company, Tocools have obviously thought about the end user. The base is very nicely machined, and perfectly flat; that's something we always like to see.

Tocools are still looking for a North American distributor to handle their heatsinks, so finding the Tocools AIM outside of Korea is not going to be easy for those interested.

There have been very few heatsinks to come across our test bench with Nidec fans installed, let alone an 80mm one. Nidec are a pretty well known fan manufacturer, with quality along the lines of Pabst or Delta. The impeller on this 80mm fan is glass fiber reinforced and the fan motor draws 0.18A under power. A wire fan grill is included, and helps to prevent errant wires from jamming up the blades, and potentially causing overheating.

Unlike the Tocools Crown heatsink which uses a triangle of metal at the base to help direct airflow out to the sides, the Tocools A1M is flat. The heatsink is based on an extruded core which then seems to have its fins cut out by a saw blade (or the entire system is cut, we're no 100% sure). The logistics of this are a bit confusing, but the end result is pretty decent.