Taisol CEP426151A Pentium 4 Heatsink Review

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The trend with socket 478 Pentium 4 heatsinks has either been on the side of new and extremely innovative aluminum designs, or very complex and heavy copper based heatsinks. Taisol have taken the simplicity of the extruded aluminum manufacturing process and blended it with a 4mm thick copper base plate. The idea is of course to speed the thermal energy from the processor core to a larger surface area for dispersal. Doin this with a copper heatspreader means that the heat energy is spread over the bottom surface of the aluminum extrusion more efficiently and hence the heatsink should work better.

In practice there are a few issues which usually stand in the way of the ideal, namely just how well the copper base plate is attached to the surface of the aluminum, and by what means. Is the copper simply bonded to that aluminum with thermal adhesive, has the entire heatsink been dip brazed for a cohesive joint, or have the surfaces been nickel plated and soldered?

While we can't rightly say for sure which method has been used here, the joint looks consistent and thermal adhesive would be my bet.

	Heatsink Specsheet: Model: CEP426151A HS Material: Aluminum, copper insert Fan: 500RPM, 12V, 0.33A Fan Dim: 13x70x70mm FHS Dimensions: 83x69x56mm Made by: Taisol Cost: ~$33USD Sold By: www.taisol.com

Pentium 4 Heatsinks put a lot of force on the motherboard and the Heatsink Retention Mechanism (HSRM for short) is an important addition over that of previous socketed processors. Taisol have been really good about shipping backplane supports with their P4 heatsinks, and this time around is no different.

The metal support plate screws in place with standard screws and has a small rubber block the sized of the m478 socket which gives added support. The heatsink actually clips onto the HSRM with small claws and works well enough all things considered. The benefit here is that if your motherboard already came with one of these support fixtures you don't need to do anything different. If however it didn't you aren't out of luck either.