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(More customer reviews)The "MASSCOOL 8W5020F1M4 CPU Cooling fan for INTEL socket LGA1156" is a Chinese made product (see photo) that looks and feels robust. The use of braided wire sleeves and finishing touches like matching black heat shrink (see photo) gives the Masscool CPU cooler the impression of having been well assembled. Surprisingly, the cooler was not wrapped in some sort of protective plastic in the chance that the outer cardboard box got exposed to water.
According to the factory box and desirable points, the fan is an UL and CE recognized electrical appliance, RoHS compliant and assembled in an ISO 9001 facility (see photo). Also per the box, is an included instruction manual, which was missing, as was the "Stars-420 white grease 0.5g (Injection tube)" claimed to be included on the Amazon product advertisement.
The CPU cooler box notes that the fan operates in "silence" (see photo), but I'm not sure I would make that claim. The Masscool heat sink fan at ~2K RPM is slightly louder than the stock Intel unit supplied with a Core3 i7 860 CPU, given the same approximate speed. At full speed, ~3K RPM, the Masscool fan sounds more than twice as loud as the Intel fan at ~2KRPM.
In terms of overall mass, the Masscool CPU cooler, compared to the Intel unit is nearly 75% heavier at 467g compared to 268g for the Intel cooler.
The "foot print" between the Masscool and Intel CPU coolers is the same (see photo), but the Masscool heat sink uses a larger, duct mounted fan which makes the entire CPU cooler assembly taller in profile (see photo). In return, the Masscool ducted fan design yields a higher CFM rating at full speed. The fan duct is attached to the aluminum heat sink using two opposing, molded plastic clips that latch on to a milled slot cut in the O.D. of the heat sink (see photo).
The overall height of the Masscool CPU cooler is about twice that of the stock Intel unit, but still fits a mATX environment. In an Athenatech A100BB mATX case, I have a standard Plextor SATA DVD drive and SATA connector pair that just miss making contact with one of the motor support vanes (see picture) on the CPU cooler which is mated to an Intel DP55SB motherboard.
With the Masscool heat sink design, each of the radial fins do not have their own discrete path. Instead, fin pairs join together about 1cm from the central hub (see photo). This is less efficient compared to the Intel design as the ratio of the active dissipating area to that of the total surface area at the point of highest thermal energy is reduced in half, assuming the two competing designs have the same number of fins and mounting point thicknesses. The radial fins on the Masscool heat sink being taller, compensates for the fewer number of fin attachment points.
Also, the total fin path length on the Masscool heat sink (see photo) is less than that on the Intel cooler. Because of this, the Intel heat sink can be shorter as the total surface area is equivalent to the surface area on the Masscool heat sink.
Attaching the aluminum heat sink and fan assembly to the copper thermal transfer surface is a stiff stainless steel support bracket (see photo). This lets more of the cooler mass, in a cantilevered orientation, to be directly vectored to the motherboard, producing less flexure, stress and non uniform forces upon the CPU's metal housing. In theory, allowing for better thermal transfer between the surface of the CPU case and the heavy Masscool heat sink.
As for the copper thermal interface, I was disappointed to see that the copper surface on the Masscool cooler was not "post polished" to a mirror like finish (see photo). What was released from manufacturing was a semi raw machined surface, with very thin visible tooling grooves left behind by the lathe, much like that found on the disc of a vinyl record and frosty appearance. Because Masscool does not perform this post polishing step, the copper interface surface has higher thermal impedance than on the stock Intel CPU cooler.
For comparison, note how thin and dim the line of scattered light, from the camera flash, on the heat sink interface surface is on the stock Intel cooler relative to the same visible feature on the Masscool heat sink surface (see photo). Again, this is because the copper surface on the Intel heat sink is polished to a mirror like surface, reducing the thermal impedance of the mating interface.
On installation, I was able to mount the Masscool CPU cooler quickly and with little effort. The plastic securing clips were easy to align and insert into the Intel DP55SB motherboard. Total cooler installation time was about 60 seconds.
In terms of temperature reduction, the Masscool CPU cooler seems to have lowered the ambient temperature of the computer case by ~ 4-5 degrees F, and the PCH temperature by ~2-3 degrees F. The temperature delta on the CPU increase by ~15-20 degrees F. Temperature approximations are per the Intel Desktop Control Center program for Intel Extreme Motherboards.
Item was promptly shipped and well packed by ZipZoomFly
Minus 0.25 for the sound level of the fan at ~3K RPM.
Minus 0.25 for the non polished surface on the heat sink copper interface.
Minus 0.25 for using a heat sink that is less efficient than the stock Intel unit.
Minus 0.25 for installation instruction and heat sink compound missing from box.
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