360° View - Rosewill RCX-Z1 Heatsink
Information on Frostytech's test
methodology is available here. | |
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The Heatsink Fan:
The 92x92x25mm fan spins at 1700-3100RPM,
and produces upwards of 54.1 dBA noise according to our measurements. The fan guard
prevents loose wires from being entangled in the impeller blades of the Rosewill RCX-Z1 heatsink.
The fan draws power from a standard 3-pin motherboard connector that supports RPM monitoring. |
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Heatsink Top:
The extruded aluminum fins
measure roughly 40mm long on either side of the mounting clip. Each fin
is 1.0mm thick at the base and
spaced 2.0mm apart. This is a fairly open fin-pitch extrusion, and the fins tapper
down as they reach full height of the Rosewill RCX-Z1 heatsink to reduce air resistance.
If you look carefully you'll notice a slightly wider space between the center two fins.
This indicates the extrusion was originally used with Socket A processors in mind. |
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Heatsink Side A:
From the side we see an 11mm overhang on either side of
the Rosewill RCX-Z1 heatsink. The sides of the heatsink have a sanded finish. The
small black plastic lever is the cam arm, in this position it allows the clip to be installed
on the heatsink retention frame. Rotated 180 degrees it applies the correct amount of clamping force to
the CPU below. |
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Heatsink Side B:
The 92mm diameter fan mounts directly
to the extrusion with a set of screws. The fan intakes cool air,
blows it down into the aluminum fins where the warm exhaust air then exits
at either side of the Rosewill RCX-Z1 heatsink to further cool northbridge
chipsets, or adjacent power circuitry. The heatsink retention mechanism is
dead simple, using just the center tab of the socket 939 or socket AM2
heatsink retention frame to lock itself in position. A cam lever then
applies the appropriate clamping force to lock the heatsink down. The base measures 77mm across, and 7.0mm thick. Note the center space which is slightly
larger than the rest - on socket A heatsinks this was
used to keep the clip in position. The extruded fins stand 35mm tall. |
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Heatsink Base:
The effective base area of the Rosewill
RCX-Z1 heatsink is a 60mm x 60mm block of copper. The copper heat
spreader is mounted to the extruded aluminum section with four brass rivets, and has a sanded finish.
The heatsink ships with a pre-applied patch of thermal compound that was removed
for our test purposes. The base is flat is one axis,
and very slightly wavy in the other. Surface roughness is about ~63
microinches, which is considered satisfactory. |
