Aopen ACK7L Copper Skive Heatsink Review
The Aopen ACK7L stands a whopping 94mm high, making it tall as socket A
heatsinks go. Less than half of that height is actually the skived
copper heatsink, the rest is a 60-80mm fan adaptor, and 80mm Nidec Beta SL
fan which rotates at just 2300RPM. The ACK7L has been assembled from parts with
an eye towards keeping the noise levels down, and in that regard it does very
well.
Thermally
speaking, with a full copper skived heatsink the Aopen
ACK7L should have what it needs to perform quite well
- provided all those copper fins are getting the desired amount of airflow
through the fan adaptor which sits above.
The fan adaptor of course reduces noise by allowing Aopen to use a larger fan, and hence a slower
rotating impeller. Combined, these two traits equate to a fan which moves
more air slower than a smaller fan, but moves the same (or more) overall
amount of air each minute.
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| Heatsink
Specsheet: |
- Model: ACK7L
- Fan: 2400RPM, 12V, 0.13A
- Fan Dim: 25x80x80mm
- Heatsink Dim: 94x64x59mm
- HS Material: Skived copper
Sold By: www.aopen.com
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| The fan
shroud has been
designed to direct air flow into the center of the heatsink for the best
results. |
Making a skived
copper heatsink where the fins are actually drawn up from the base plate goes
something like this; a chisel like cutting device bites into the metal
plate from a very shallow angle drawing up thin wedges of material. The
difference is that the cuts are much more controlled and result in straight fins
of metal (the skived fins) standing upright.
Of course, with such a tight fin density, skived
heatsinks also have the downside of acting somewhat like a dust filter, and
collect cat hair and dust bunnies over time quite rapidly. Regular cleaning
should keep things in tip top shape.
Since the copper portion of the Aopen
ACK7L is actually the same physical material as that of the fins, the heat flow
pattern from bottom to top is unimpeded. That makes skived heatsinks one of the
most efficient designs available - provided they are designed well.
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