Rarely we see a product in this industry that will last you a lifetime, but OCZ's new cooler might just be the last cooler you will buy. Ever! Why such a pompous introduction?
The answer is technology invention, instead of recycling existing technologies. Instead of using obsolete heat pipes, dr. Michael Schuette from OCZ experimented with micro tubes, and the result is a fantastic cooler, capable of dissipating more than 300 Watts of heat. We have been browsing through technical characteristics of some water cooling sets, and we were surprised to see that this cooler has better characteristics.
The special feature of this cooler is not the surface or amount of the pins, but the utilization of the same surface. In most of today's heat pipe coolers, large amount of heat is concentrated near the heat pipes, and is not distributed evenly over the surface of the pins. So, after some point, adding extra surface to the cooler will not yield better cooling. OCZ has overcome this problem with micro tubing and oil circulation.
The new OCZ cooler is isothermal, which means that on each and every spot of the cooler, the temperature will be the same. Better distribution of heat, means that you don't need a loud turbine that will pump the air over the fins.
What is the difference between heat pipes and micro tubing? Heat pipes transfer heat with a evaporating media inside the pipes, while micro tubing work similar to standard water cooling. A small pump incorporated in the base of the cooler, pumps oil from the base of the cooler to the radiators, where the heat is transferred to air.
The pump will not consume lot of power. About 0,5 Watt will be enough to handle most of the laminar stabilization of the flow, and maintaining turbulent flow. Technical details, like Re numbers of the flow were not disclosed. The base of the cooler is made out of carbon (C), and not copper (Cu) like most of the coolers.
Attila the Hun once said – I like to travel around the world because I can meet a lot of nice people and see a lot of beautiful places. Will this cooler conquer the world in the same manner like the Hun did – crushing competition with a big smile? Review will be coming soon.
OCZ website.
