Soldered fins?

[StaticPressure]

Are there any Scythe coolers with the fins soldered to the heatpipes?

Most of the reviews I have read say that Scythe's coolers are friction fitted or thermal glued.

[sumo]

Hi,

there is only one cooler in our portfolio with soldered fins, thats the Orochi cooler. Why you want to know this?

Chris

[StaticPressure]

Curiosity.

Soldering is supposed to improve thermal efficiency, so I was wondering why Scythe doesn't do this to more of their coolers. (At least to their higher end stuff)

[EndoSteel]

StaticPressure
Things are not that simple. actually. Look closely at fins that are designed for press-fitting and you'll notice "bottlenecks" around heatpipe holes that widen the contact area. Orochi uses a different (cheaper?) technique of fitting fins that prohibits making these "bottlenecks" - otherwise it will be impossible to drag the fins (pre-stacked) on. That's why they use soldering - to compensate the losses.

As for combining "bottlenecks" and soldering - I can say that technologically it's a complete PITA that leads to a very little improvement in terms of cooling capacity. Just isn't worth the trouble.

[StaticPressure]

Originally Posted by EndoSteel

StaticPressure
Things are not that simple. actually. Look closely at fins that are designed for press-fitting and you'll notice "bottlenecks" around heatpipe holes that widen the contact area. Orochi uses a different (cheaper?) technique of fitting fins that prohibits making these "bottlenecks" - otherwise it will be impossible to drag the fins (pre-stacked) on. That's why they use soldering - to compensate the losses.

As for combining "bottlenecks" and soldering - I can say that technologically it's a complete PITA that leads to a very little improvement in terms of cooling capacity. Just isn't worth the trouble.

Soldering also holds fins more firmly than simple press fitting

I have used a tower heatsink from a company whom I will not mention other than it's name starts with an "X". It's top fin is loose.

I have also had a loose fin with the Scythe Ninja, although it is only partial.