3.2 Northwood Heatsink.....

[imported_Sartori]

Hello

I received a 3.2 Northwood the other day and I noticed that they changed the heatsink and went to a slab of copper on to some other type of metal for the main heatsink. The metal looks duller then the previous heatsinks and seems to be too heavy to be Aluminum. Is this different metal then the older heatsinks?

And it also looks like they changed the thermal compound to something else too, looks just like coolermaster thermal grease.

I was going to install a hyper 48 too help things cool a little better but after I saw this I'm wondering if it would be worth it....

Are these new retail heatsinks cooling better then the previous releases?

 

[MDE]

It's probably nickel-plated copper.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

The only way to find out is to try it.

After a few experiences with "better" HSF assemblies with small fans, and earlier stock HSF assemblies, I don't even debate the issue anymore. I want a heatsink that will mount a 120mm fan. And I believe the tests and numbers prove that heatpipe assemblies work better than simple heatsinks. They also allow for more effective cooling with the same heatsink weight or even less.