Article by: Joe Anderson (Hardware Reviewer)
Edited By: Nathan Glentworth (Owner / Head Editor)
Product was submitted by: Zalman
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PRODUCT PICTORIAL AND WALKTHROUGH (cont'd)
Owing to the fin and heatpipe design, there is an extremely large dissipation area and the fins have sufficient spacing to keep resistance to a minimum for good cooling at lower fan speeds.
The 5X has a significantly different base design, with the heatpipes being slightly oval as they enter the base. Presumably, this increases surface area to allow the rather thin (0.45mm) baseplate to more efficiently transfer heat from the processor to the ‘pipes. The base is flat in both axes and has a finish that, while not mirror finished, should be more than up to the job at hand. Mr. Bones was very interested in this design and is cautiously optimistic about its cooling performance. The pre-installed mounting clips also intrigue him.
In this photo we can see that the ‘pipes are securely affixed to the base and it appears that the copper baseplate and heatpipes are soldered together, but it's difficult to ascertain. Notice here also how the mounting clips interface with the aluminum base to provide a uniform clamping action on the processor.
The mounting solution supplied with the 5X will only need to be deployed on Intel platforms, as AMD users can use the OEM retention bracket. As we'll see in a bit, this solution is versatile and easily installed without removing the motherboard from the case, even if the mobo tray doesn't have an opening to facilitate CPU swaps. While I like what I see, I'll reserve comment until the installation phase of the review.
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