Date: August 22nd, 2006
Article by: Joe Anderson (Hardware Reviewer)
Edited by: Nathan Glentworth (Owner / Head Editor)
Product was submitted by: APACK
<--SHOP FOR A ZEROTHERM BTF90 PROCESSOR HEATSINK HERE
PRODUCT SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES
While not gargantuan, the BTF-90 is pretty large. Listed at 740 grams, it's also quite heavy. Four looped heatpipes and 102 copper fins (totaling almost .5 square meters or 5.4 square feet) coupled with a 92mm fan should provide good cooling. The fan has red LEDs and PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) speed control, should the motherboard support it. Wide compatibility is always a plus, and the BTF-90 supports the latest sockets, as well as some older AMD offerings. Intel P4 users with older sockets will have to look elsewhere. The manual promises compatibility information at the Apack website (http://www.apack.net/) but this has not materialized as of this writing.
SMALL HEATPIPE TECHNOLOGY TUTORIAL
I am going to keep this as simple as possible to get the basic premise across to all of the Tweaknews readers. Please don't be insulted if this is too simple for your education level. I have to cater my writing to the least technical reader looking for information.
The basic idea behind heatpipe technology is really simple.
1.) With a tube containing a compressed fluid/gas, the fluid comes in contact with the heat source (the cpu core, in this case) which heats up the volatile fluid and turns it to a gas. The energy is absorbed in the gas production process and is ready for transportation.
2.) The heated gas now travels along the inner portion of the tube where it comes to the cooling portion of the heatsink in this example.
3.) The radiator, with or without a fan, will cool the liquid and transfer the energy (AKA heat) to the radiator to be dispersed to the surrounding air. With the heat removed, the vapor quickly condenses back to a fluid and runs along the inside surface of the pipe back down to the bottom where the process can be started all over again.
For another example, you can consider a boiling pot of water with a glass lid as a very very basic heatpipe. When the water boils, the water vapor comes in contact with the cooler glass pot lid which forces the vapor to condense back to water where is dribbles back down the inside of the lid back into the pot.
It's basic, but it gets the point across.
PRODUCT COMPOSITION
The silver cardboard box is attractive and a window shows off the 92mm fan.
Graphics on the side of the box illustrate many of the interesting design features incorporated into the BTF-90.
The other side lists the specifications, while the back shows some performance comparisons above a square window that gives us a look at the rear of the cooler.
Inside the box is a plastic clamshell containing the cooler and a cardboard box that holds the mounting solutions and manual.
