360° View - Xigmatek HDT-S963
Heatsink
Information on Frostytech's test
methodology is available
here. | |
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The Heatsink Fan: The Xigmatek HDT-S963 heatsink uses a 92x92x25mm
PWM fan that spins at 1200-2800RPM. There is no wire fan grill to protect the
impeller from errant wires inside the computer case. The three copper heatpipes are
6mm in diameter, and extend from the base up through all the fins. As
far as we can tell, no joints are soldered (unnecessary). The fan draws
power from a standard 4-pin PWM motherboard fan header, and is backwards compatible with
3-pin connectors. |
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Heatsink
Exposed: The aluminum fins of
the Xigmatek HDT-S963 heatsink are 0.4mm thick and spaced 1.75mm apart. The
dimples in the fins are for holding the spoiler in position (any of the
fins can support it). The rubber mounting posts are visible here with
the fan removed. Overall there is 90x92mm worth of aluminum cooling fins
directly behind the 2800RPM 92mm PWM fan. The two cuts in the aluminum
base are for the AMD K8 mounting clip to lock into. |
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Heatsink
Top: Looking from the top
down, we can see how Xigmatek have added small dimples in the aluminum fins for
the spoiler to attach to. There is a 4.5mm plenum behind the fan. The
three 6mm diameter copper heat pipes are
positioned towards the outer edge of the cooling fins. This puts them in the vicinity
of the highest airflow from the fan, leaving the center portion of the cooling fins
open where there is the least amount of airflow. Notice how the rubber fan mounts lock
into the edges of the aluminum cooling fins (at bottom left/right). |
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Heatsink Side A: The aluminum fin area of the Xigmatek HDT-S963 heatsink is 50mm
thick, and the whole heatsink stands ~137mm tall. The first fin is 35mm above CPU
socket for clearance of adjacent capacitors, northbridge
heatsinks, etc. The three copper heat pipes are positioned side to side at
the center of the aluminum block where they make direct contact with the processor. This
configuration ensures that the maximum amount of heat is conducted from the CPU integrated heat spreader directly to the heatpipes in
as short a distance as possible. The base is capped with a 12mm thick aluminum section to provides support for
CPU clamping brackets. |
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Heatsink Base: The usable area of the Xigmatek HDT-S963
heatsink base is 34x38mm in size. Note how each of the three 6mm
diameter copper heatpipes has been swaged into the
aluminum base block. A light sanding gives the total surface a smooth consistent texture. The copper heatpipes have been pressed flat, not sanded... that would puncture the tubes. Surface roughness is on the order of ~32 microinches, which is considered
good. The copper and aluminum surfaces are pretty flat in both axis.
The thin voids between the copper and aluminum are easily filled by
good quality thermal compound. The two screw holes are for the Intel
mounting hardware to attach to. |