Zalman finally awoke

[svol]

Finally Zalman learned and combined two thingsL extreme overclocking with HSF and silence.

They made a full copper HSF with a super silent fan that actually performs better then the Thermaltake Volcano 7+ with 6k rpm fan! Too bad it can't be placed on the Socket A platform though :frown: .

<A HREF="http://www.bit-tech.net/review/190/" target="_new">http://www.bit-tech.net/review/190/</A>

My dual-PSU PC is so powerfull that the neighbourhood dims when I turn it on

 

[Guest]

Wow, what a beaute!

 

[Lonemagi]

Wonder what those posts are for on the Athlon64?

Looks good, both cooling and visual!

--
"To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace."
"There is nothing so likely to produce peace as to be well prepared to meet the enemy."
-George Washington

 

[LtBlue14]

wowwww gorgeous

--------------
I LOVE DANGER DEN WATERCOOLING, they went out of their way to both personalize my kit and change my order when i needed to, i had to change my sig to give them props

 

[Teq]

Interesting... But at 770 grams --more than double the 350 max for Socket A-- I doubt you'll be hanging on on an XP2600 anytime soon.



---> <b>Press ALT-F4 for IQ test</b><---

 

[error_911]

Hmm, I've read about those already from Comdex 2003 in Toronto, they do look pretty sweet... but its true, at 770grams thats a mother of heatsink - but on the other hand, if you don't move your case too much then i guess its just as good as anything else... and the price is pretty good too, i mean figure an MCX462 for $35 and a nice panaflo at $15 comes pretty close in price... and I'm sure that the Zalman can handle more than that combo.

One thing I've got to question though - the thermal conductivity between that copper plate on the bottom and the fins ... I mean, they're not skivved or anything from the bottom plate, they're squished together... i dunno, tiny gaps and air traps is what I'm thinking, anyone agree ? - basically could this heatsink be made into somethin better ? hmmmmmmmmm. I find that in general, Zalman comes up with some pretty good designs but they never follow-up on their stuff, i mean, there's room for improvement on many of their products and its like they decide on a deisgn model and never even test it for the end-user... also the fact that they haven't contacted me back in regards to sell wholesale to me doesn't make me too happy either heh

<b>people are only idiots when they don't realize - when they do it just gets funnier, like a dog chasing its own tail, or like george bush's public address(es)</b>

 

[Teq]

I was wondering about the laminated construction myself. Basically the thing's built like a breadboard... each of the copper fins is stamped and bent to a specific angle, then it's all bolted together and machined smooth on the bottom.

Would it not have been better to solder? Even lead has a better conductivity than air and then there's oxydization to consider. They could very easily have dip galvanized the part of each fin that forms the bottom section and then flame reflowed the solder to form one solid mass. The final machining step would have exposed the copper, just as it does on the present design.

Like you, I'm wondering... Zalman coolers have always been wild creations with no better than mediocre performance. So yes, seeing the test results for some of these exotic designs, I do sometimes wonder if they are tested or not.






---> <b>Press ALT-F4 for IQ test</b><---

 

[LtBlue14]

you can't argue with that great performance though
it seems they've gotten around the problems

--------------
I LOVE DANGER DEN WATERCOOLING, they went out of their way to both personalize my kit and change my order when i needed to, i had to change my sig to give them props

 

[Teq]

Well, the review gave it good marks... but, being the skeptic I am, I would want to test one before affirming it's worth.

It's the weight that concerns me the most...That thing weighs 1 1/2 pounds... What happens if a computer with one of those inside gets tipped over while it's running? Does that extremely heavy cooler get loose and cause real havoc? Are the P4 mounting brackets up to the added strain? etc...



---> <b>Press ALT-F4 for IQ test</b><---

 

[lhgpoobaa]

hmmmm. cant say im convinced... looks far too much like a large orb... and lacks fins right ontop the cpu patch.

<b><i>Poloticians and Nappies should be changed often... For much the same reason.</b></i>

 

[error_911]

Well dude, think about it - plastic clips with that much weight, hmmmmmmmmm... imagine what would happen if it was dropped, ohmygod the damage/horror. But you know what, I've even seen a video put out by Alpha with the PAL8045... they dropped a case out of the 3rd story window with the heatsink mounted on - and it never came off, with no damage to the CPU.. talk about testing. Now if only Zalman realized what the customer wants instead of saying "we have a good product take it as is" ... no offence to ANYONE, I don't mean to be prejudiced or steretypical or anything of the sort, I am simply basing my opinions on my experiences with these types of situations, but I deal with MANY computer distributors and manufacturers every day (I must have 75-90 reseller purchasing accounts), and I find that the WORST are the Asian manufacturers and direct distributors - they know what their product is, but no more - I've had TECH SUPPORT answer questions by reading off of FAQs! I mean whatthefuck ?! They can't help for sh*t if there's any problems or anything - like i said, in their minds its "take it as is, and if you don't like it too bad"... instead of marketing towards the customer, they base their sales on the product alone instead of customer srvice and satisfaction. They've got a million dollar product line, which they could EASILY standardize into many common high-volume systems (ie Dell, Gateway, IBM, HP) if only they were to improve their products and learn some tact.

Woah that went off-topic... oh well - I know some of you know what I'm talking about anyways... maybe I'ts just that my experiences happened to be with Asians, like I said, I only base my opinions on the one's i've dealt with, and know that there are all sorts of people in this world that are just as useless if not worse, heh. Just funny to see that some companies hire tech support/custy service NOT based upon actual knowledge of the technology/product, thats it..

<b>people are only idiots when they don't realize - when they do it just gets funnier, like a dog chasing its own tail, or like george bush's public address(es)</b>

 

[svol]

That might be the reason why there is no Socket 462 (A) version... using the mounting clips on the socket is way to unstable and the 4 holes can't be used due to the size.
The P4 uses a 4 hole bracket design and the Hammer a 2 holes so it will be stable enough at those CPUs. And there have been more heavy HSFs.

As for looking at the orb design (PooBaa)... the orbs where totally different. With an orb the fan only blew sideways... with this design both down and sideways + it is full copper.

My dual-PSU PC is so powerfull that the neighbourhood dims when I turn it on

 

[svol]

Look at the pci on the end of this page: <A HREF="http://www.bit-tech.net/review/190/2" target="_new">http://www.bit-tech.net/review/190/2</A>
It looks like the use a massive copper block and slice it in thin fins.

My dual-PSU PC is so powerfull that the neighbourhood dims when I turn it on

 

[Lonemagi]

I wondered that with the earlier flower coolrs. I wonder if anybody has tried getting some silver solder to flow inbetween those things?

--
"To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace."
"There is nothing so likely to produce peace as to be well prepared to meet the enemy."
-George Washington

 

[error_911]

actually svol, i check out Zalman's website and they say that they take all the fins and compress them and polish.. i mean i know copper is soft enough to be able to do that without leaving any gaps or anything, but i think it still would have been better from one block... besides, how do would they have gotten the "zalmann" name written on each fin had it been skivved ?

<b>people are only idiots when they don't realize - when they do it just gets funnier, like a dog chasing its own tail, or like george bush's public address(es)</b>

 

[svol]

Hmmm... well then I was wrong. But it sure does look one piece on the pics. Maybe it is just way to difficult to create such a heatsink from one copperblock.

My dual-PSU PC is so powerfull that the neighbourhood dims when I turn it on

 

[Teq]

It's made like the core of a transformer. Dozens of layers of copper shimstock cut to shape and laminated together with bolts. What you saw in the picture was the polished <i>edges</i> of the shimstock.



--->It ain't better if it don't work<---

 

[Teq]

All they have to do is tin the shims with a thin coating of solder or silver and then reflow and compress it under heat. Why they didn't do that I don't know, probably too expensive to manufacture that way.

As it is now, I'd be really worried about the bolts coming loose.


--->It ain't better if it don't work<---

 

[Guest]

From the article svol posted:

"Minimise boundaries in the heatsink block: Heat travels as a wave, much like sound does and all waves hate boundaries. Sticking with sound as an example, it's obvious just how much sound a wall blocks out despite the solid wall being a better 'conductor' of sound than air is. The 'plates' of copper Zalman have constructed this heatsink from have no boundaries in the direction of flow of heat (radially away from the core)."

Sn/Pb - Cu boundaries galore, would be what you have described. It wouldn't be a bad idea if you could just do the tinning down where the actual joint would be made, since the base is ground smooth you would have the vanes of copper exposed to the cpu in a radial pattern along with the solder. I still think the way they did it is the best cooling design for the price, since milling/casting (whatever) wouldn't be affordable if it is even possible.

 

[Guest]

Also, if solder, or bolts why not thermally conductive adhesive?

 

[error_911]

well common dude, thats a silly question - we all know that some silver or tin solder is a hell of a lot more conductive than thermal adhesive... which is basically some AS3 + epoxy... besides, i'd be worried about that coming unglued onto my CPU - then you'd really be f*cked

<b>people are only idiots when they don't realize - when they do it just gets funnier, like a dog chasing its own tail, or like george bush's public address(es)</b>

 

[svol]

That whas exactly what I was thinking about. But if they just press it firmly enough together and don't use glue but thermal adhesive you wont notice heat transport loss.

My dual-PSU PC is so powerfull that the neighbourhood dims when I turn it on

 

[svol]

Silver soft solder is just Tn/Pb without the Pb and silver instead of it. In our country that is always used in drink water pipes as Pb is poision when you drink to much of it.

Solder only melts above 200 C (or higher)... I don't think any CPU will get that high.

Besides thermal adhesive can survive high heats. Up to 150 C for Arctic Silver Adhesive.

My dual-PSU PC is so powerfull that the neighbourhood dims when I turn it on

 

[Teq]

Well... until corosion sets in or the bolts come loose.

The edges can be machined into the thermal equivalent of a solid block of copper. But since you have dozens of joins where corrosion can (and will) set in, you run the risk of hundreds of lapses in the heat seal over time. Whether this takes years or weeks will depend on a whole lot of factors. Moreover, they cannot coat the copper with anything to prevent the problem as this would reduce thermal conductivitiy...

It still stikes me as gadgetry and I don't think I'll be recommending this to my customers any time soon.



--->It ain't better if it don't work<---

 

[Codinerx]

That heatsink looks like a work of art... and performs surprisingly well. I want it.