The FrostyTech Synthetic Temperature Test Platform consists of an aluminum block heated by a 120V 250 Ohm precision resistor which produces 50W of heat. That heat is transmitted to the heatsink being tested by via the aluminum block and a special copper die template which has a thermistors embedded directly in it. There are currently two copper die templates used in our tests.

A temperature reading for a particular heatsink is taken once the temperature stabilizes in the copper die template. Since each of the die templates have the surface area of either a silicon topped or heatspreader-topped processor the flow of heat to the base of the heatsink accurately mimics a real life configuration.

Shown with the copper die template for a silicon-topped processor, the synthetic heatsink test apparatus awaits a coating of AOS 52029KY non-silicon based thermal compound and the OCA Twin Turbo heatsink. A slightly larger copper die template was used to test the effective cooling ability of the Twin Turbo atop a heatspreader-based processor.