The CPU Radiator is one of the more complicated heatsinks around by far. Putting aside the work necessary to produce the Akachi pipe radiator for a moment, there is an ABS housing, glass fiber reinforced Nylon66 articulated clips, dual 15mm thick 60mm fans, and about a dozen screws that go into assembling this heatsink. And yes this product falls under the "some assembly required" heading.

Thermacore, a manufacturer of heat pipes and related technologies has a good white paper on the Akachi technology and we highly suggest you give it a read if you would like to know more about this relatively new cooling concept.

We've taken a few paragraphs from the article to better explain the concepts at work under the aluminum skin. You can find Thermacore's PDF document, "Combined Pulsating and Capillary Heat Pipe Mechanism for Cooling of High Heat Flux Electronics " here.

"Compared to extrusion heatsinks that rely on conduction to extend heat dissipation surfaces, a heat pipe cooler uses highly effective evaporation and condensation cycles to extend surfaces."

"As heating and cooling are applied to the two ends of the heatpipe, vapour bubbles generate in the heating section and condense into liquid slugs in the cooling section.

The volume expansion due to the vaporization and contractions due to the condensation cause an oscillating motion of the fluid that sends vapour carrying heat to the condenser and returns liquid to the evaporator. The oscillatory motion of the liquid slugs and vapour bubbles is self sustained as long as the heating and cooling conditions are maintained."

The CPU Radiator Core
	The entire radiator measures 62x32x64mm and is built entirely from aluminum tubing and thin fin sections. Only the tubing at the base of the radiator is soldered together, the portions on the side are not really connected. The aluminum fins are no more than about 3/1000th of an inch thick and have louvers for added thermal efficiency. The nickel-plated copper base is a mere 3mm thick.
	The top of the radiator is plain, with just the TS Heatronics logo printed on the bare aluminum. Some denting may occur from the leaf spring in the housing during installation but this won't affect the performance of the unit.
	The base plate is nickle-plated copper and has a mirror finish as you can see. Flatness is very good, but not perfect. The base measures about 31mm x 31mm. The small tab on the edge of the Akachi pipe protects a spout and should never be removed, or damaged or the working fluid will be released.