Asia Vital Corp (AVC) is a name familiar to Frostytech, but may not necessarily be on the forefront of many consumers minds. AVC manufacture virtually all of the stock Intel heatsink designs, with a few exceptions here and there.

FrostyTech was given a briefing on the AVC designed reference heatsink for the socket 775 'Prescott' and 'Tejas' (now cancelled) Intel Pentium 4 processors at the companies booth during Computex. AVC was showcasing the new Socket T (LGA775) heatsink system that it had developed which was a combination of extruded aluminum and central copper column. Socket 775 heatsinks are virtually all about 90mm in diameter, which is a fairly large increase from the standard rectangular shape of the previous socket 478 Pentium 4 heatsink.

According to AVC;

"The fan was designed as an integral part of the Intel RCBFH-3 Reference Design. All aspects of the fan motor design were studied in order to provide the best balance of torque capability, efficiency, reliability and cost. The fans 90mm outer diameter is maximized within the thermal solution footprint. The fan hub diameter matches the diameter of the heatsink's core and the fan blade length parallels the fin length. The 21mm fan assembly height allows for maximum heatsink height and fin area to meet thermal and acoustic requirements. The airflow generated when tested in conjunction with the heatsink is equivalent to the Intel RCBFH-S Reference Design; however the measured acoustics are significantly better. This allows for an increase in RPM and associated performance gains at equivalent acoustics. The fan has an on board thermal sensor to control the maximum fan speed based on local ambient temperature.

The reference design includes a control signal by adding a 4th pin on the fan connector. This control signal allows the motherboard to control the speed of the fan based on the CPU's thermal needs. The control signal also separates speed control and power delivery to the fan, allowing a wide RPM range. The low-end RPM capability of the fan is 1000 RPM or less.

Intel worked with Asia Vital Components (AVC) to develop Intel's third generation radial heatsink and fan assembly design now called the Intel Radial Curved Bifurcated Fin Heatsink Reference Design (Intel RCBFH-3 Reference Design). AVC developed a new fan motor that meets Intel's fan specification, and provided assistance in developing, manufacturing, and testing the heatsink assembly that meets Intel's requirements."

For socket 775 processors, AVC had several Prescott-FMB2 extruded aluminum/copper-core heatsinks to showcase, all of which were 90mm in diameter. The unprotected fans rotate at 4000RPM, driving 77.2CFM of air down into the 90x90x38mm fin section of the heatsink. The "Sunwave's" design is simple, but with so many dangling wires in the average computer case, the unprotected fan blades will easily be jammed if just one stray wire is entangled.

AVC Sunwave socket 775 heatsink with smooth surface fins. The unprotected fan impeller may be good for acoustics, but is a poor option for preventing wire entanglement.

Another version of the AVC "Sunwave" socket 775 heatsink with scalloped fins. Both versions have central copper cores.

The socket 775 Sunwave AVC heatsink on the left shows us what the back-PCB support and alternate screw-based mounting system looks like. This may not seem important, but if you have to remove the entire motherboard every time you need to switch heatsinks, that causes a lot of hassle.