Design and Functionality

We can’t say that the design of Alpenfoehn Brocken heatsink is in any way unique or innovative. However, the more we get to know this solution, the more we get convinced that the engineers simply took everything good from other coolers out there and combined it all in their new solution. Take a look at the heatsink:

It is a classical tower measuring 125.5x104x157 mm sitting on four copper nickel-plated heatpipes, each 8 mm in diameter. The heatpipes form part of the cooler base (Heatpipe Direct Contact technology. The heatpipes hold 51 aluminum plates covered with a layer of nickel alloy:

Each heatsink plate is about 0.5 mm thick and they are spaced out at 1.9-2.0 mm from one another. The calculated effective heatsink surface is 7,730 cm².

The plates in the center of the heatsink are shaped as an open-top trapezoid and are pushed down by 5 mm:

We have already seen something like that in APACK ZEROtherm Nirvana NV120 Premium cooler and OCZ Gladiator Max cooler. This design of the center of the heatsink may serve to lower the airflow resistance and also increase a little bit the overall effective heatsink surface than in case the heatsink plates were straight. If we continue investigating airflow resistance matter, we will also see that for the purpose of lowering the airflow resistance even more the heatsink plate edges are of variable height (in other words, of wavy shape) in the zone of maximum airflow:

By the way, note that the heatsink plates are all grouped into packs of three with an additional shorter plate separating these packs. I didn’t notice any traces of soldering or thermal glue in the contact spots between the heatpipes and the heatsink plates. Looks like they may have simply pressed the plates against the heatpipes, i.e. used the so called molding method.

By looking at the top of the heatsink you can notice rectangular 15x3 mm slits cut out in the plates:

Another four clips are made around the heatpipes (only the top decorative plate doesn’t have them). As you know, these stamped holes increase the airflow turbulence and improve cooling efficiency.