The Fenrir's four 8mm diameter copper heatpipes are swagged into the aluminum base block, pressed flat, and then ever so thinly milled flush. Considering all the heatsinks that Frostytech has tested which employ 'heatpipe direct touch' or 'direct contact heatpipes', we've found that milled base plates tend to offer better results and flatter surfaces than a light sanding affords. But not to cause confusion, a milled base doesn't always mean the heatsink will perform better than the rest - to find that out we must test the heatsink!

Exposed heatpipe base heatsinks work best with processors that have thick integrated heatspreaders and even heat distribution over the entire surface area. They can potentially encounter problems when heat is localized too directly, such that one or two of the outside heatpipes receives much less heat than the remainder.

Heatsink Installation

Titan's TTC-NK85TZ Fenrir heatsink is compatible with Intel socket 775,1366 and AMD socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+ processors. The heatsink comes with a set of rear-motherboard support brackets, and one upper metal clip which accommodates all the CPU sockets. Assorted brass standoffs and thumbscrews make installation pretty straight forward. It's not tool free, so be prepared to open up the PC and install the motherboard rear support plate.

The TTC-NK85TZ has one set of wire fan mounting clips for the supplied 120mm fan, and can only accommodate the one fan. Users with their own 120mm fan can easily sway out the supplied silver-bladed fan for something quieter as it is a little loud at full speed.

Base Finish and Flatness

Flipping a heatsink over to inspect the business end is often a simple indicator of overall cooler quality. More practically speaking, a heatsink is in many ways only as effective as the contact it makes with the processor - the flatter and smoother the better. Base finish is one of the criteria that Frostytech measure in the course of evaluating heatsinks, and it involves two distinct aspects. Surface Finish is the first; this is calculated with the aid of Surface Roughness Comparator that has a cross section of common machine surface finishes and their numerical surface roughness equivalents in microinches. The second is Surface Flatness. This is tested with an engineers straight edge or proven flat surface, in two axis.