Copper Heat Sink Comparison

Companies: GlobalWinUSA, Thermaltake, OCZ, Thermosonic
Date Reviewed: May 3, 2001
Reviewed By: Jason

OCZ Gladiator:

The Gladiator just showed up on my doorstep one day, so I figured why not include it in the comparison, after all it is all copper. First thing I noticed about the Gladiator is that it much lighter than the WBK38, it probably weighs the same as the mini copper orb. Second thing I noticed were all the rows of fine copper fins. The Gladiator came with a TopMotor fan, rated for 36CFM, however I did test it with a Delta fan to be fair, and it did show quite a difference. The Gladiator also came with a TIM pre-applied, however I used thermal compound instead.

(click on image for close-up) 

Thermosonic Thermoengine:

Yes I know the Thermoengine isn't a copper heat sink, but I wanted to include a couple regular heat sinks to see how they compared (both price & performance wise). The Thermoengine breaks away from the traditional heat sink design, and down the center is a hollow core. I would buy this heat sink just for the looks, but it's good to know that it is also a top performer. One thing to note, the TIM included with the Thermoengine is very high quality and I would recommend using it. However it is not reusable, so once you take your heat sink off, you need to clean off the TIM and use regular thermal compound. The bottom of the Thermoengine is kind of grooved so I just lapped it with some 400 grit sandpaper, it took literally like 20-30 seconds, not much time at all. AZZO was one of the first people to carry the Thermoengines in the US, but now they are starting to pop-up everywhere, it's Thermoengine mania I tell you!

(click on image for close-up) 

GlobalWin WBK38:

GlobalWin's WBK38 is their top of the line non-copper heat sink. It has a cool "wave" look it from the side, but it also retains many features from the previous FOP38 heat sink. The WBK38 is also an excellent non-copper heat sink, my only gripe about GlobalWin is the clips are not the most user-friendly.

(click on image for close-up) 

Testing:

Testing was done using a KT7A-RAID with a 1GHz Athlon (Courtesy of PCNut) overclocked to 1.13GHz (8.5 x 133). Temperature was taken using the built in thermistor that touches the bottom side of the CPU. Yes, we all know this isn't the actual core temp, but it works for comparison purposes.

To heat the CPU up, I used Prime95 since it puts a consistent load on the CPU. After several people griping about how Prime95 doesn't put an actual 100% load on the CPU, I did a little research and emailing and discovered it only puts about an 85% load on the CPU. So my solution to compensate is simple. First I used a program called Radiate (Download Radiate.zip from our FTP, the original file can be found somewhere at Overclockers.com) to calculate out the wattage of an Athlon at 1.13GHz at 1.85v. This number turned out to be 67 watts. So if I was to run Prime95 with that setting, we take 85% of that number and we get almost 57 watts, which is no good. So, to compensate I upped the voltage in the program till I got something that would be about 67 watts at 85%. This turned out to be 2.05v, which at 100% would be 80.4 watts, but 85% of that number would be 68.34 watts. Well, the closest I could get on my modded motherboard was 2.04v so I figured I was pretty much right on the money. Yes I know this is a crude way to do it, but it is much better than just ignoring the fact that Prime95 doesn't heat up the CPU all the way.

The heat sinks were tested twice to make sure the numbers were consistent. So now that we got a smokin CPU, how do they measure up?

Go To Page 3 For Testing & Conclusion -->