360° View - nPowerTek Hurricane NPH-105 Heatsink Information on Frostytech's test methodology is available here.
The 25mm diameter heat column and two U-shaped 6mm diameter heatpipes rise the full height of the nPowertek TTIC NPH-105 heatsink, 157mm. With a 120mm fan installed (seen from rear), the motor is positioned in front of the heat column. The fin stack stands 114mm tall, 66mm deep and 130mm wide. The bottom most fin is elevated 38mm for clearance.
The 0.3mm thick nickel plated aluminum fins are soldered to the heatpipes and 25mm diameter central heat column. Fin pitch is set at 2.0mm. The copper base plate is 5mm thick, the entire base plate 11.4mm thick. Wire fan clips hold one or two 120mm fans against the nPowertek TTIC NPH-105's fin stack.
The copper base plate of the nPowertek TTIC NPH-105 heatsink is machined flat with a slight ridged texture. It measures 45x47mm in area. The heat column and heatpipes are soldered to the opposite side of the copper base plate. The fin design is pretty simple, a small plenum is formed from the saw-tooth fin edges.

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 nPowertek TTIC NPH-105 is made of copper, it's just nickel plated to reduce corrosion. The machined base is perfectly flat in both axis but the machining operation left a ridged texture with a surface roughness of approximately ~32 microinches.

Next up, let's see how this heatsink handles the heat compared to a selection of other heatsinks!