X-bit labs

SuperCoolers Return: Zalman CNPS9700 LED and Scythe Infinity (page 6)

Category: Coolers

by Sergey Lepilov

[ 12/11/2006 | 03:12 PM ]

Design

The Scythe Infinity is a very large cooler at 125x116x160mm. Its weight with the fan is 960g.

There seem to be nothing special about this design: an aluminum tower on five copper heat pipes whose ends are sealed with figured caps at the cooler’s top. This seems to be simple, but let’s take a closer look:

I didn’t try to count up, but there are very many aluminum plates here. They form three overlapping sections: a central and two side ones. Thus, the plates have the highest density around the pipes where the heat load is the highest whereas the middle and the sides of the cooler are less dense to reduce resistance to the airflow. But the cooler is large and the plates are placed no wider than 2mm apart in the densest spot, so the low-speed fan shipped with the cooler is going to be too weak to blow through this ribbing well enough.

The top plate of the Scythe Infinity is adorned with an embossed logo of the manufacturer.

The caps on the ends of the pipes look cool, too.

The cooler’s base is protected from scratches with a piece of film:

The copper plate in the cooler’s base is perfectly finished:

It is polished and absolutely flat. This plate is a mere 2.5mm thick and the pipes contact it with their bottom surface only (judging by the traces of solder on the edges, the contact is implemented by means of soldering). I think that Scythe lost something in terms of efficiency here. If they made grooves for the pipes in the base-plate, as is done in the Zalman CNPS9700 LED for example, the Infinity would keep the temperature a couple of degrees lower.