Chauh-Choung DTA-15 Heatsink Review

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The DTA-15 may look overly familiar because a very similar heatsinks was released by Thermalright several months ago. The DTA-15 is produced by a company called Chauh-Choung who are an OEM manufacturer based out of Taiwan. The DTA-15 looks very similar to the Thermalright CB-6L on the outset, but on closer inspection the DTA-15 is not nearly as chromed, and has a slightly different extrusion pattern.

With a 2mm thick copper plate soldered to the base, the DTA-15 seeks to blend the benefits of inexpensive and light weight aluminum extrusions and the heatspreading capabilities of copper. We have seen many manufacturers try to take advantage of this method, but few were able to produce really good heatsinks by it. The trick is to get the copper firmly, and completely attached to the base of the heatsink, with no air spaces, or the addition won't work effectively.

	Heatsink Specsheet: Model: DTA-15 Fan: Dynaeon, 5400RPM, 12V, 0.20A. Fan Dim: 10x60x60mm Heatsink Dim: 74x40x62mm HS Material: Extruded Aluminum, Copper Mfg by: Chauh Choung Cost: ~$18 Sold By: www.ccia.com.tw

Without completely destroying the heatsink, it is difficult to tell for certain how well the copper is soldered to the base of the aluminum extrusion (which looks as though it has been nickel plated).

In the picture below you can see how the milled-out piece of copper has been attached to the extrusion. The importance of milling out the copper slug should not be under estimated. Often, a copper base plate such as this will be punched out from a thick sheet and left unfinished. The punching operation leaves the corners slightly rounded and can produce slightly wavy bases. The milling process is a lot more forgiving and this heatsink is pretty good in terms of flatness.

On the opposite side of the copper plate there is the same run-off of solder. However it is clearly visible that the gap between the aluminum and copper has been filled.

There are visible gaps at the edges of the plate where solder has not flowed, so it is hard to say how well the coverage is on the other side. If I had to guess I'd guess at least 80%-90% of the area was actually covered in solder, and making good contact.