360° View - DeepCool Killer Whale Heatsink Information on Frostytech's test methodology is available here.
The 48mm thick 120mm fan on the Killer Whale heatsink spins at 1800RPM by default, and the support beams are illuminated with blue LEDs for visual effect. The PWM fan can drop down to 1000RPM if quieter operation is desired. A standard 4-pin PWM motherboard header provides power. The six 6mm diameter heatpipes are located towards the outer edges of the fan where airflow is generally highest.
DeepCool's Killer Whale heatsink stands 140mm tall. Its raw aluminum fins are press-fit over six 6mm diameter nickel plated copper heat pipes spaced 7mm apart, in two groups directly under the highest airflow region from the fan. The bottom of the fin section is elevated 50mm for adequate motherboard component clearance. Each aluminum fin measures 0.4mm thick and is spaced 1.75mm apart. The base plate is solid copper, 8.5mm thick. The 120mm PWM fan is elevated 15mm above the aluminum fins, and rests on vibration absorbing rubber posts.
The six 6mm diameter heatpipes are soldered to the solid copper base plate of the DeepCool Killer Whale heatsink for low thermal resistance. The base plate is machined flat, with a large 56x50mm footprint.

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.

The base of the DeepCool Killer Whale heatsink is made from a solid block of copper which has been machined and polished; surface roughness is approximately ~8 microinches which is excellent. In terms of surface flatness, measuring with an engineers straight edge reveals that the solid copper base plate is perfectly flat in both axis. It certainly helps that DeepCool have selected a hefty 9mm thick copper block here, it will resist bending under the clamping forces quite well.

Next up, acoustic comparisons and sound measurements.