Cut in half, we can see the wick which lines the inside of a typical heatpipe. The wick draws the working fluid by capillary action back to the evaporator end of the heatpipe.

Each copper fin is soldered to each heatpipe for an optimal thermal interface.

Looking at the Coolermaster Hyper6, you realize that all the cooling power of this heatsink comes down to just a few heatpipes. It can often seem like heatpipes are these magical little devices which somehow transfer massive amounts of heat energy from one point to another. In fact, were it not for the six copper heatpipes in this heatsink, the Coolermaster Hyper6 would be nothing more than a pretty chunk of copper.

But what exactly are heatpipes, and how is that these hollow metal tubes are able to move heat? What makes them tick?

To answer that question, we'll look at what happens as one of the heatpipes in the base of the Coolermaster Hyper6 heatsink warms up. As heat energy from the processor reaches the 6 heatpipes a reaction inside each of the copper tubes starts. Each copper heatpipe is sealed off at both ends, and contains a small amount of working fluid under a vacuum.

Now might also be a good time to remind you of chemistry class when you were taught that the lower the pressure, the lower the temperature (heat energy) needed to boil water.

As the copper base of the Hyper6 warms up, it transfers that heat energy to the heatpipes soldered to its surface. The working fluid inside each heatpipe absorbs this latent heat, causing the fluid to undergo a phase change into water vapour (ie. it converts to steam). In our daily lives, water boils at 100C, but as pressure is decreased the temperature gradient required also drops. In any case, the small amount of working fluid inside the heatpipe quickly converts to vapour as the temperature of the evaporator (hot side) end of the heatpipe heats up.

The vapour is subsequently drawn to the cooler end of the heatpipe and condenses. As the hot vapour cools back into a liquid, the heat energy that was previously stored is transferred into the fins of the heatsink. The condensed vapour, now working fluid once again, is drawn back towards the hot evaporator end of the heatpipe by capillary action along an internal wick structure. As the liquid reaches the hot end once more, the entire process repeats itself.

This is how heatpipes move thermal energy, and how the Coolermaster Hyper6 essentially works to keep an Athlon64 or Pentium 4 processor running cool.

The dual use socket 754/940 and Socket 478 heatsink retention frame holds the Hyper6 cooler firmly in place on either Intel or AMD processor. Coolermaster also ship the HSF with two brackets, so you have your choice of where to located the fan-speed controller.