This article is a follow-up to the 2004 issue which looked at all the latest heatsinks and cooling systems from that period. Since this 2005 synopsis is mostly an examination of heatsinks shot at recent trade shows, we'll jump right into the mix. In the following pages we'll look at innovative heatsinks by Thermalright, Thermal Integration, Aerocool, Coolermaster, Aopen, Asus, Evercool, Foxconn, Gigabyte, Global Cooler, Glacialtech, Jetart, Kingcooler, Lexsys, Thermaltake, Vantec, Zalman and a few others.

The first company on that list, recently showcased a variety of prototypes at a recent trade show FrostyTech attended.

Thermal Integration have a released a mix of really popular and completely unknown heatsinks since the companies inception. At a recent trade show FrostyTech stopped by the booth and received a guided tour of several new thermal solutions the company was preparing for market. Everything we saw being demonstrated was remarkably well built and designed. Unfortunately, most of the heatsinks were Pentium 4 LGA775 models, a CPU which has not been very popular of late.

These photos of solid copper prototype heatsink illustrate some of the technologies Thermal Integration was advancing at the time. Notice how the stacked copper fins that circumvent the central copper cylinder are all joined together.

This prototype Thermal Integration Prescott-T FMB2 heatsink mounts a little differently than expected, with the fan hovering several millimeters above the actual heatsink. This model is multi-CPU compatible.

Thermal Integration's combination bifurcated fin extruded heatsink with copper core.

This is a simpler K8 heatsink with a central copper core used for moving heat towards the majority of the radially curved copper fins.

A Thermal Integration LGA775 heatsink with large copper core to mount directly to the CPU.

A prototype heatsink apparently intended for the LGA775 Pentium 4 processor. It appears as though a heat column is used at the center instead of solid copper.