Before we move on, one of the other changes we noticed between the sample we received originally, and the current retail version is the brand of fan used. The original hollow Thermoengine we reviewed came packed with a 60x60x10mm YS Tech fan. The retail, Solid Thermoengine came with a T&T 60x60x10mm fan.

Looking at the initial results of the two versions of ThermoEngine it is immediately obvious that the original hollow heatsink offers slightly better performance. The difference between the two generations of Thermoengine with their stock heatsinks is almost exactly 5 degrees. When we tested each with the same fan, the differences were less pronounced.

In the tests with the YS Tech fan on both the hollow and the solid heatsink, the differences we say were on the order of about 2 degrees. This result was much lower than what we had originally anticipated. When testing each of the heatsinks with the lower-performing T&T fan the results remained in scale, with a difference of about 2 degrees as well.

What is obvious from these tests is that the fan shipping with the retail unit we got offers less cooling ability than the 9-bladed YS Tech. While fans can easily be changed, the underlying performance characteristics of the aluminum extrusion is something which cannot be easily altered. Surprisingly, in this area the results coincide with those of the same fan tests. At most, the difference between the hollow and solid Thermoengine appears to be no more than 2-3 degrees.

For our synthetic test platform the rise above ambient temperature results back up what we saw moments ago. The solid Thermoengine does perform slightly poorer than the hollow Thermoengine, but by only a few degrees. Each of these heatsinks was tested back to back, using the same silver thermal compound, and at the same ambient temperatures.

Applying the 7000 RPM Delta fan

We were wondering what the performance differences might be between the two Thermoengine heatsinks when a higher-performance fan was used. We grabbed a 7000RPM Delta fan (25x60x60mm) off of another heatsink and tested it out on each of the Thermoengines to find out. The ambient temperature was 28.2 degrees Celsius, and the results were as follows. The solid Thermoengine saw a rise above ambient temperature of 19.9 degrees Celsius, and the hollow Thermoengine a rise of 19.8 degrees Celsius. Essentially, both Thermoengines scaled up to identical performance characteristics with a high-RPM fan such as the one we used in this evaluation.

To ensure that our readings were not being influenced by the large down draft (a situation relating only to the Thermoengine be virtue of its vertical extrusion design) the lead wires to the thermistor were insulated with a some closed cell foam.