At Computex this past June, Frostytech walked through the halls of the Nangang exhibition hall in Taipei Taiwan looking for new and notable heatsinks... and we found lots and lots. From what we witnessed firsthand, two new CPU cooling trends had emerged - exposed heatpipe bases and split fin bodies. The heatsink industry is pretty cut throat, so when one manufacturer gets a good idea, that idea is quickly appropriated by every manufacturer in one format or another. There's an interesting story about fake heatsink prototypes at Computex.... but that's a tale for another day.

In any event, as with anything new and revolutionary the devil is in the details. This is certainly the case with the new Evercool Transformer 6 heatsink - itself a fairly unique approach.

Evercool has built the Transformer 6 out of three individual aluminum cooling fin segments, toped by a glistening silver 120mm fan mounted on vibration absorbing rubber posts. The arrangement of the six heatpipes is fairly unique, but more on that in a moment. Weighing in at 873 grams, the Transformer 6 heatsink is compatible with Intel socket 775 and AMD socket 754/939/940/AM2 processors. As of this writing Intel's socket 1366 is not supported. Its retail price is expected to be in the region of $48CDN ($48USD).

Evercool Transformer 6 Heatsink

heatsink specsheet manufacturer: evercool model no.: transformer 6 materials: aluminum fins, copper base and heatpipes fan mfg: evercool ec12025l12ea-cl fan spec: 1200-1800rpm, 12v, 0.27a fan dim: 25x120x120mm heatsink & fan dim: 126x145x160mm weight: 873 grams includes: mounting bracket, thermal compound, fan speed controller, instructions Compatible with Sockets: 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+, 775 Est. Pricing: $48USD ($48CDN)

The Evercool Transformer 6's 120mm fan is affixed to the heatsink with four vibration absorbing rubber mounting posts. The rubber posts fit through the standard screw holes in the vaneaxial fan frame, and keep the fan elevated just above the tips of the aluminum fins. If the fan motor happens to develop vibrations down the road, the rubber 'shock absorbers' can reduce that from becoming noise.

Out of the box we noticed that the Transformer 6 heatsink had a visible bend in the heatpipes to one side. The mass of the fan and aluminum fins is only supported by four heatpipes, so it doesn't take much effort to flex. Resist the urge to bend the upper portion of the heatsink back to level, you may crack the heatpipes in doing so. The bending shouldn't affect performance.

Installation Hardware

Evercool's Transformer 6 heatsink is compatible with Intel socket 775 and AMD socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+ processors. The heatsink uses two metal brackets which attach to the base that allow it to mesh with an Intel/AMD rear motherboard support plate. The screws holding the heatsink in place are threaded from the rear, into the upper bracket. This can make installation a little tricky. On top of the juggling act, you'll also need to remove the motherboard from the computer chassis. Also supplied with the heatsink is a syringe of good quality thermal compound and a small manual fan speed controller.

FrostyTech's Test Methodologies are outlined in detail here if you care to know what equipment is used, and the parameters under which the tests are conducted. Now let's move forward and take a closer look at this heatsink, its acoustic characteristics, and of course its performance in the thermal tests!