Thermaltake Volcano 6Cu+ Heatsink Review

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Ever since the ORB shocked the cooling world with its shape and functionality the eyes of performance users have been glued on Thermaltake. While heatsinks like the Dragon Orb 3 have brought about some of the heaviest designs on the market one thing remains constant - copper, and the quest for absolute performance.

When used properly, copper can help increase the effectiveness of just about any heatsink design, but when misused it really only adds dead weight. With that in mind we are going to review the Volcano 6Cu+ and specifically the large copper slug in its' base to see how effective it really is.

	Heatsink Specsheet: Model: A1138, Volcano 6Cu+ Fan: Everflow, 7000RPM, 38CFM, 39dBa, 12V, 0.41A. Fan Dim: 25x60x60mm Heatsink Dim: 67x80x62mm HS Material: Extruded Aluminum, Copper slug Mfg by: Thermaltake Technology Cost: ~$29 Sold By: Thermaltake

A Detailed look at the Volcano 6Cu+:

There are a few different heatsinks in the Volcano 6 series and not all of them come locked and loaded with copper in the base. The Volcano 6Cu comes packing copper naturally, and the "+" denotes the 7000RPM fan - standard fare is a 4500RPM fan.

Since the Volcano 6Cu+ uses an 8mm aluminum thick base plate we were expecting the copper slug to be covered entirely by the aluminum.

On the contrary, turning over the heatsink reveals the copper slug poking its head out from under the twenty of so fins.

As long as the joint between the base of the fins and the top of the copper is tight this shouldn't be much of an issue. Heat energy will also travel from the copper laterally through the side where there is an 8mm ring of material in contact with the aluminum.

If on the other hand the interface between the top of the copper slug and the aluminum fins is poor, the only cooling effect will really be the air on the relatively small copper surface area. In the end it's difficult to tell what the actual thermal situation really is...

The clip on the Volcano 6CU+ is one of those where you absolutely have to use a small flat-head screw driver to install or remove the heatsink.

It's not as bad as it may seem, but care should be taken when installing heatsink of this nature on AMD processors. To combat shifting weight when mounted vertically, the heatsink clip has two small tabs which lock the cooler firmly in place.