Thermalright Rolls Out AXP-90 Full Copper CPU Cooler

[btarunr]

Thermalright rolled out the AXP-90 Full Copper top-flow CPU cooler for low-profile PC builds. A smaller sibling of the AXP-100 Full Copper, and a variant of the aluminium-based original AXP-90, this cooler features a dense copper fin-stack that's arranged along the plane of the motherboard. Four 6 mm-thick copper heat pipes make indirect contact with the CPU over a mirror-finish copper base-plate, pulling heat through the fin-stack. A 15 mm-thick 92 mm TL-9015R fan ventilates the fin-stack. This fan takes in 4-pin PWM input, spins at speeds of up to 2,700 RPM, pushing up to 42.58 CFM of air, with as low as 22.4 dBA of noise output. With the fan in place, the AXP-90 Full Copper measures 97 mm x 92 mm x 47 mm (WxDxH), weighing 490 g. There are two sub-variants of the cooler specific to CPU socket type supported, the AXP-90 Full Copper LGA115X, and AXP-90 Full Copper AM4. Available on Chinese e-tailers such as T-Mall, the AXP-90 Full Copper is priced at RMB 299, or the equivalent of USD $42.70.



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[Rob94hawk]

Swap the fan out for a 92mm Noctua.

 

[INSTG8R]

Purdy!

 

[eidairaman1]

Purdy!

Id like a copper tower again.

 

[cucker tarlson]

Swap the fan out for a 92mm Noctua.

why ?

 

[First Strike]

I think this is a much better heatpipe design than Cryorig C7. C7's heat pipe bending cut off a tremendous amount of fin area from heatpipe connectivity, right at the area of strongest airflow. I'll wait and see the performance of this cooler

 

[ZoneDymo]

Swap the fan out for a 92mm Noctua.

ermm is Noctua not the one making their fans to begin with?

on topic, sexy af, reminds me of the Scythe anniversary cooler way back when.

 

[dj-electric]

Since full copper heatsink have already proven not to provide much or any extra benefits to CPU temps, that's a meh from me.
As much as those fins like transferring heat, they also really like holding onto it.

 

[maxitaxi96]

I am hoping to see performace that beats the Cryorig C7. It's always good to have alternatives in the SFF area (I hope OptimumTech makes a Video about this one!).

 

[aktpu]

So, based on packaging this this meant specifically for Dancase A4?

 

[Rob94hawk]

ermm is Noctua not the one making their fans to begin with?

on topic, sexy af, reminds me of the Scythe anniversary cooler way back when.

I've never seen a Noctua fan that color combo.

why ?

Better fan.

Since full copper heatsink have already proven not to provide much or any extra benefits to CPU temps, that's a meh from me.
As much as those fins like transferring heat, they also really like holding onto it.

Not from I learned about copper way back when. Thermal conductivity of copper is almost 60% higher than that of aluminium.

 

[dj-electric]

Not from I learned about copper way back when. Thermal conductivity of copper is almost 60% higher than that of aluminium.

And that's exactly why its a double edged sword. I wish these full copper coolers were much better than what reviews showed they are. Best case scenarios ive seen is a very minor upgrade. Something really tiny

 

[1000t]

Not from I learned about copper way back when. Thermal conductivity of copper is almost 60% higher than that of aluminium.

And that only means heat can spread more easily through the fins. So if Al fins are cold at the most distant edges from heatpipes then Cu could make a difference. But what is also important is heat transfer from fins to air and I don't think there's much difference between Al an Cu.

 

[Dammeron]

I've never seen a Noctua fan that color combo.

It's not like they can't make OEM fans for other brands.

Better fan.

Not quite. Tr fans are of really good quality and performance.

Not from I learned about copper way back when. Thermal conductivity of copper is almost 60% higher than that of aluminium.

And that only means heat can spread more easily through the fins. So if Al fins are cold at the most distant edges from heatpipes then Cu could make a difference. But what is also important is heat transfer from fins to air and I don't think there's much difference between Al an Cu.

Copper has higher thermal conductivity, but also higher heat capacity - radiator made fully out of Cu will perform better, but it needs decent airflow. So if You put a low RPM fan on it, the difference between alloy fins and copper fins is not gonna be that big.


I love Tr coolers - before I switched to LC, always used their stuff, from SLK-947 up 'till HR-01 Plus. For me this brand, along with Noctua, was always a synonym of high quality

 

[silentbogo]

Better fan.

Where did you get that idea from? That's the same sealed fan design, just different color scheme. Speaking of Noctua, I've already replaced a fan on my L9i twice, and it's up for another replacement soon (approx. once every 2 years, which is only 3% of claimed MTBF of 150K hours).

 

[1000t]

Copper has higher thermal conductivity, but also higher heat capacity - radiator made fully out of Cu will perform better, but it needs decent airflow. So if You put a low RPM fan on it, the difference between alloy fins and copper fins is not gonna be that big.

Thermal conductivity is a material property, how well it transfers heat in itself.
Heat transfer coefficient is dependent on material its shape, surface and surrounding medium, how well can heat get to the environment.
Heat capacity is a material property and not important in steady state.

To cool something, heat must get from the source through the cooler to surrounding medium, air (which itself is a good insulator). If the only change in cooler is Al to Cu fins, it means the heat can better spread through the fins only, but not into the air around them. Higher heat capacity means the heatsink will warm up later, but also stay warmer longer. That's because air is the limiting factor and Al is sufficient for relatively low temperature, low heat flux individual heatsink fins.

 

[BakerMan1971]

it's very pretty reminds me of the late 90's and early 00's

 

[Dammeron]

Higher heat capacity means the heatsink will warm up later, but also stay warmer longer.

Exactly. And that's why materials with higher heat capacity work better with higher airflow - lowering the surrounding temperature (by better removing the heated up air) helps them cool faster.

 

[1000t]

Exactly. And that's why materials with higher heat capacity work better with higher airflow - lowering the surrounding temperature (by better removing the heated up air) helps them cool faster.

No. What you gain by having higher temperature difference after the heating ends you lose by not having it in the beginning. There are some advantages if the heating is short, but once the total heat capacity is reached at steady state, it's irrelevant.

Also, specific volumetric heat capacity of Cu is ~42% higher than Al. This means a heatsink of the same shape made of Cu is ~230% heavier, but can store only 42% more energy than Al one. If Al heatsink warms up fast, Cu one will heat up only slightly less fast. It looks nice, feels heavy, but it's not that different when cooling with air.

 

[Turmania]

I like it. hope it is competitve against noctua options.

 

[GlacierNine]

No. What you gain by having higher temperature difference after the heating ends you lose by not having it in the beginning. There are some advantages if the heating is short, but once the total heat capacity is reached at steady state, it's irrelevant.

Also, specific volumetric heat capacity of Cu is ~42% higher than Al. This means a heatsink of the same shape made of Cu is ~230% heavier, but can store only 42% more energy than Al one. If Al heatsink warms up fast, Cu one will heat up only slightly less fast. It looks nice, feels heavy, but it's not that different when cooling with air.

It *does* result in a performance improvement - it's just not as dramatic an improvement as people often expect. Thermalright are not strangers to this either- the TRUE has been available in both Alu and Full Copper versions for years. The difference was a few C better temps on the TRUE Copper, in exchange for being absurdly heavy and tarnishing more easily.

In a small design like this, the weight is less of an issue than it is for a huge tower cooler, so I imagine there will be a number of people who are more than willing to trade their Alu coolers for this, and gain that small performance advantage and aesthetic boon.

 

[Mirkoskji]

I remember that extending copper to fins in big heatsinks was not bringing Big performance benefits in the past. Did the overall design improve to take better advantage of this feature?

 

[eidairaman1]

I think this is a much better heatpipe design than Cryorig C7. C7's heat pipe bending cut off a tremendous amount of fin area from heatpipe connectivity, right at the area of strongest airflow. I'll wait and see the performance of this cooler

They went to middle ground or back of pack as far as i see in performance

 

[GlacierNine]

I remember that extending copper to fins in big heatsinks was not bringing Big performance benefits in the past. Did the overall design improve to take better advantage of this feature?

It doesn't bring big benefits, no.

There used to be a bunch of voodoo people would spout about aluminium having better "emissivity", and therefore somehow being better. That's complete rubbish and you should ignore anyone spouting it.

The explanation I've always found made the most sense is this one:


If you could magically somehow heat one copper heatsink fin and one alu heatsink fin to exactly the same temperature, say 40C, in an ambient of 21C, and you blew a fan on them, the amount of heat moved off of each fin would be identical. The material used simply doesn't matter in that way. Each molecule of 21C air would pass over something 40C, pick up the same amount of heat while doing so, and then blow away into the room.

Thing is, heatsinks are not heated evenly across their whole surface like that. You can't just poke a heatpipe through a piece of metal and expect it to heat that metal evenly across it's entire surface. The heat will conduct outward from that central point and so the area next to the heatpipe will be hotter than the ends of the fins.

The longer you make the fins, the further it has to be conducted away from that heatpipe. After a certain distance, adding extra length to a fin makes no difference, because the heat simply never gets there before it's dissipated by airflow. You can increase that distance by using a material that conducts heat more quickly along it's length - like copper.

Additionally, if you do this, then the distribution of heat along that fin ends up being more even. By this principle, an all-copper heatsink can have longer fins before that impacts performance.

The greater the delta between ambient temperature, and the temperature of a dissipating element, the faster the transfer of heat between that element and the air moving across it. Since the Cu heatsink will have a greater delta over a greater portion of the fin, it therefore acts similarly to as if the heatsink had more surface area - but, and this is the big but - this is only really a relevant factor if the fin is long enough to start with, that it would have noticably uneven heat distribution due to the difference in conductivity.

For this reason, at least when the medium of heat transfer from the IHS is a heatpipe, large all-copper heatsinks do perform slightly better than large Copper/Alu heatsinks, but small heatsinks will show a smaller difference in performance between these two approaches.

 

[Mirkoskji]

It doesn't bring big benefits, no.

this is only really a relevant factor if the fin is long enough to start with, that it would have noticably uneven heat distribution due to the difference in conductivity.

For this reason, at least when the medium of heat transfer from the IHS is a heatpipe, large all-copper heatsinks do perform slightly better than large Copper/Alu heatsinks, but small heatsinks will show a smaller difference in performance between these two approaches.

So basically the better thermal characteristics of copper are most useful when you use it as a thermal transfer/interface element, to a dissipating element. Which is how copper is currently used in conventional heatsinks. We will see in benchmarks, when compared to famous low profile heatsinks already in the market.