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One of the dichotomies computer
enthusiasts encounter is creating a powerful machine that runs silently. The
problem is that in order to air-cool well, you need a lot of air movement,
which in turn creates noise through turbulence. Or, you can spend a
significant amount of money creating a water or phase change setup. More often
than not, one creates a powerful machine that creates just enough noise to be
bearable. In an effort to make air-cooling a more powerful and quieter
solution, Coolermaster has released a number of heatpipe style CPU coolers
over the past two years. Today we’ll be looking at the latest in this line –
The KHC-V81 Hyper 6.
Packaging and Contents
When the UPS man handed me the box, I was almost convinced I had not gotten a
CPU heatsink…it was much too big and heavy.
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**click to enlarge** |
**click to enlarge** |
It turns out that I got the right box. The Hyper 6 comes in colorful retail
packaging that doesn’t hide the fact that this heatsink is the sumo wrestler
of CPU coolers. Fan installed, the Hyper 6 tips the scales at just over one
kilogram, or a little over two pounds – Definitely the biggest CPU cooler I’ve
ever seen. Coolermaster has supplied a unique backplane to help support this
weight on either a Pentium 4 or an AMD K8. As we experienced with the
Musketeer II, Coolermaster has put together a very thorough package, including
two options for mounting the fan speed control.
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**click to enlarge** |
**click to enlarge** |
Unlike most heatsinks, the Hyper 6 has fan
mounts on the sides instead of on top. In theory, you could add two 80mm fans,
one pushing and one pulling, to really make this heatsink work. That’s still a
lot of weight on the base though, and if you set it up like that it will not
be a LAN rig…it would probably snap your motherboard on the first bump.
Visible on the top of the heatsink and down by the base are the six heatpipes
that give the Hyper 6 its name. The base of the Hyper 6 is well polished, and
lapping probably wouldn’t improve it much.
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**click to enlarge** |
**click to enlarge** |
**click to enlarge** |
Specifications
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Socket Type |
AMD K8 (socket 754/940) and Intel P4
(socket 478) |
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Heat Sink Dimension |
96x82x120 mm |
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Heat Sink Material |
6 heat pipes + 100% Copper stacked fin
with copper base |
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Fan Dimension |
80x80x25 mm |
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Fan Speed |
1800 ~ 3000 rpm |
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Fan Life Expectance |
40,000 hrs |
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Bearing Type |
Rifle bearing |
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Voltage Rating |
6 ~ 12V |
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Noise Level |
21 ~ 34 dB(A) |
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Connector |
4 Pin (Power Input), 3 Pin (Speed
Detection) |
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Application |
P4 all frequencies and K8 |
Interestingly, the massive weight was not on the
list!
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