Chauh-Choung DTA-12 Skive Heatsink Review

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Skive heatsinks have become almost as popular as copper heatsinks used to be. The DTA-12 is a small formfactor 60mm aluminum skive heatsink intended for use on Socket A and Socket 370 processors. The relatively small 10mm thick 60mm fan means it is a low-noise solution intended for average consumer systems.

Performance freaks generally like to strap on an ear splitting Delta before they trust any heatsink as I'm sure you've all heard.

	Heatsink Specsheet: Model: DTA-12 Fan: Dynaeon, 5400RPM, 12V, 0.20A. Fan Dim: 10x60x60mm Heatsink Dim: 48x60x62mm HS Material: Skived Aluminum Mfg by: Chauh Choung Cost: ~$20 Sold By: www.ccia.com.tw

Skive heatsinks have been around for a few years now but without wide distribution until recently. Dynatron springs to mind when you mention the word Skive, as they were one of the first companies to really break into the marketplace with a line of well made and efficient coolers.

Interestingly that while extrusion heatsinks can be made quickly and with moderate quality, skive heatsinks are just about always very well made. The billets of aluminum or copper that go into the machine must be of exact dimensions for the process to proceed without defect. Consequently, you'll notice that just about every skive heatsink has a very nice machined base. Performance users love this because is shows the manufacturer has taken the steps to afford them better contact when they mount the heatsink on the core - in reality, the benefit is merely a constraint of manufacturing tolerances.

With some older Skive heatsinks showing short fin heights and thick fin thicknesses, the race is on to produce skive heatsinks with tight fin pitches, higher fin heights, and thinner fins. The ultimate goal is improved surface area, and subsequently cooling.