Taisol K7 Heat Pipe

Welcome once again to the Monster Hardware secret laboratory, where today we will be examining the Taisol CMK702151A heat pipe for AMD CPU’s. This sample was provided by the guys over at Xoxide, we appreciate their support. Basically, this CPU cooler involves a dual heat sink assembly sandwiched around a 28cfm fan, with the heat sinks connected by the heat pipe assembly tubing. Let’s get right to the package... The Taisol K7 heat pipe CPU cooler is packaged in a simple "clamshell" plastic unit and included with the cooler was a basic instruction sheet and a small package of silicone paste.

My first impression was "Holy smoke! This thing is HUGE!" It measures about 90mm tall, 85mm in depth, and 125mm across the width (which includes the heat pipe tubing). I had my doubts that this thing would even FIT into my test computer - which has a mid-size tower case and an ABIT KG7 motherboard. Here are a couple of close-ups:

     
When I took the K7 out of the package, there was a blue plastic film on the bottom of the cooler on the copper plate that contacts the CPU. There was a thin clear grease film under the blue plastic, apparently to prevent corrosion to the bottom plate. The copper plate was fairly well polished, but did contain a few nicks and scratches. There was a very fine scratch pattern in the center of the plate, I suspect that the unit was tested by the factory quality control or similar.

Next, after the initial examination, I ran tests to check the cooling capacity against a couple of basic reference CPU coolers.

Cooler #1 - Antec all-aluminum cooler (generic CompUSA fare). The fan volume was about 24 cfm at 5300 rpm.
Cooler #2 - Coolermaster copper cooler with copper fins and aluminum shroud. The fan had been replaced and was not stock, estimated at 22 cfm at 3300 rpm.
Cooler #3 - Taisol K7 heat pipe with copper bottom plate, aluminum fins and shroud, and copper heat pipe tubing. The Delta fan pushed 28 cfm at 3300 rpm.

The test system included the following components relevant to this test:

ABIT KG7 motherboard
AMD Athlon 1.2 G processor
Arctic Silver thermal interface material
Generic 400W power supply
Windows 2000 operating system
Motherboard Monitor 5.2 - monitored temperatures for ambient and CPU
Prime95 Torture Test - 30 minutes minimum to stress the CPU and heat it up
Ambient temperature was tested at the motherboard with the case side off


First, I installed the Antec and the Coolermaster HSF’s in the system for a series of tests. For both, I let the computer run for at least 10 minutes with no applications and only periodic checking from Motherboard Monitor 5.2 to determine a set of data for "idle" conditions. Next, I ran the Prime95 Torture Test to tax the processor and determine a "loaded" set of temperatures.


After checking my two reference CPU coolers, it was time to install the K7 heat pipe - and my headaches began, all because of clearance and clip design. This was a difficult CPU cooler to install for several reasons. First, the physical size made maneuvering difficult. In fact, the top section of fins was so large that it was impossible to use a hand to attach either side of the retaining clip. Keep in mind though, that your case might not be as tight internally as mine was. Secondly, the ABIT KG7 uses a "North-to-South" CPU orientation - many other motherboards are arranged "East-to-West".

I finally had to break down and remove the power supply in order to get in to the point where I could actually attach the clip on the top side. Then, I was barely able to get the power supply back in it’s home due to clearance. Guess what... the right side heat pipe tube would not allow me to plug the main power connection back into the motherboard. So, I had to take it all apart, plug the main power plug in, and reassemble everything one more time. This is definitely a situation where you will not want to be changing out the CPU coolers on a frequent basis.


Secondly, I feel that the clip design could be improved. The clip was designed to grip all three prongs on the Socket 462. I’m sure stability for the large assembly was the primary design factor in this design. However, the clip does not have a "flex elbow" and a flat bladed screwdriver must be used to force the clip to attach. Furthermore, the screwdriver slot was so small that I had to use a mini screwdriver to fit into the forcing slot to get it clipped. This clip was so difficult to install with minimal clearance that I attempted to reverse the clip so that the main attachment side was on the south end of the cooler away from the power supply - but after I disassembled the cooler, the internal fin arrangement did not allow swapping the clip ends. I actually dinged the motherboard with the screwdriver and bent the crap out of a capacitor more than once. Once installed, though, the wide clip does provide a very sturdy, non-sliding installation.

Tip: I seriously recommend that anytime you are installing a heat sink clip where you must use a flat bladed screwdriver tip - you should cut a small section of cardboard or thick paper (like a piece of someone’s business card) and tape it to the area immediately under the clip "hooks" during your installation. This will help prevent damaging a trace on the motherboard.

You can see a good shot of the clip in one of the close-up pictures shown above. Once I got everything reassembled, I ran the same Prime95 torture test after allowing the idle temperatures to stabilize. Here’s a picture of the Taisol K7 heat pipe as it was actually installed. Note the tight clearances - right up against the power supply, and it barely clears the power plug as well as the output connectors to the back of the case. Also take a look at the capacitor bent during installation! When you install this cooler, you must be careful.


Now, the results:


Antec Coolermaster Taisol K7
Candidly, I was surprised at the results, and that the Taisol K7 heat pipe performed so well – but I’ll take what I can get! The heat pipe proved worthy and resulted in about a 5 degree Celsius drop in both idle and stressed conditions. An added bonus was the fact that the two fin areas served to muffle noise very well. This was one of the quietest CPU coolers I have ever had in one of my computers.

Remember at the first part of the article when I took it out of the package and had my first impressions? Prior to actually gaining the results in hand, I took my observations and called the Taisol distribution office in California and asked a few questions - as many of you know, I have a scientific background and sometimes my curiosity gets the better of me. Unfortunately, I received the answers to my questions before the actual test and installation, or I would have asked some questions about the choice of clip.

When I called, I was able to get the President and General Manager, Jason Huang, on the phone. As we wrapped up our discussion, he requested that I resubmit my questions via email so that he could be perfectly clear in communicating my request to his technical group. I felt that this was more than fair, and I have to credit Jason for incredibly fast response and excellent customer service. Here are a set of questions and answers about the Taisol CMK702151A Heat Pipe CPU Cooler.

MHW Question: Why is there so much clearance above and below the fan? This fan should be capable of plenty of airflow, even if drawing air through the bottom heat sink.
Taisol Answer: The clearance is limited by the bend of the heat pipe tubing. There is a double compound bend on each tube.

MHW Question: Why use three tubes instead of an even number?
Taisol Answer: Three tubes were used because of existing tooling; there is not a mechanical concern of imbalance. Four is possible and may give slightly better performance.

MHW Question: The bottom plate is installed with six machine screws into an extruded aluminum heat sink. Could it be made with a soldering solution instead of a mechanical connection for better heat transfer and cost reduction?
Taisol Answer: We are working on soldering the pipe to the bottom copper plate. The design was chosen because it provides some manufacturing advantages - our P4 heat pipe solution has an aluminum bottom plate.

MHW Question: Why was the AL6063-T5 aluminum alloy used instead of all copper?
Taisol Answer: AL6063-T5 is commonly used because it is easier to work with and there is not a big performance hit.

MHW Question: Why was the Dow Corning DC340 silicone grease included in this package? There are other far superior thermal interface materials to choose from.
Taisol Answer: Many users choose to use their own preferred TIM anyway, so we just included the Dow Corning just in case.

MHW: Mr. Huang, thank you for your time and fast response!

In conclusion, I have to rate the test of the Taisol CMK702151A Heat Pipe CPU Cooler as a success. The performance margin of improvement over a couple of simple test coolers was significant. There are plenty of enthusiasts that will spend many hours of effort and lots of cash in order to gain a degree or two of improvement in cooling for their CPU - and this heat pipe provided an average drop of 5 degrees Celsius in our test system. In summary:

Pros:

It works... VERY well!

Fairly priced (at Xoxide, anyway)

Strong customer service effort from national distribution office

Strong, stable mounting system - ONCE installed

Plenty of headroom for future mods - possibly a larger fan in the middle and an additional fan on top? Hmmm...

Cons:

This is a quite large piece of equipment... better check your own clearances before you purchase

High degree of difficulty to install, must be careful not to damage motherboard

Added: January 7th 2003
Reviewer: Insulglass
Score:
Hits: 1860
Language: english