D
Deleted member 193706
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Word of warning: Large pictures, you're better off clicking on each as it will reduce it in size or if you know how I can change them into thumbnails that would be awesome if you could help me out 
So... having read many recommendations of the cheap chinese 6-heatpipe coolers from various andom internet sources (the snowman) https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000293017167.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.7f184c4dbNPhwj
I decided to "take the plunge" and ordered one on the 30th Dec (2019). It "promptly" arrived on the 22nd Jan which isn't all that bad considering.
First impressions before unboxing where that the box it was shipped in, which was the actual product box with no other external box which it was housed, is that it was quite flimsy and thin cardboard and it had definitely taken a bit of a bashing during it's long 3 week trip from China to the UK, none the less there was some foam padding inside so it "might be OK right?" Wrong.
Here's some pics of the heatsink and hopefully you can see from my poor HTC one M8 camera pictures that it's not quite symmetrical or straight in a few different ways.... LOL.
Now the real ballkicker in all of this is if you look at the 2nd and 3rd pictures right above this comment, you will see that not all the heatpipes sit flush together and in fact there is a difference of probably 1mm between 2-3 of them on the whole, which doesnt sound like much of a big deal, but this means, I won't ever get contact with all of the heatpipes onto the CPU heat spreader and in fact only maybe one or 2 maybe making direct contact with it once installed, making 6 heatpipes a waste of time since most of the cooling potential is killed by piss poor manufacturing and quaity control.
My options are as follows:
1) It was only £16, it came from China and well.... we know how cheap products that come from china usually end up
2) I could try to use it and just be really generous with my TIM (thermal paste
) to see if that will fill the gaps and make up for the shoddy finish, though I;m not sure that much TIM would be able to compensate for having such an uneven base when you have the cooling potential of 6 heat pipes versus maybe 1 or 2 that are actually making good contact with the CPU.
3) I could try to lap the base to try and get a smooth, flush and uniform base (as it should have been) though this in itself carries risks, look at the dents in some of those heatpipes that was done during the manufacturing process. I don't know how thin these heat pipes are and trying to shave as much as a 1mm off some of them and getting a flat base could result in my lapping too far and weakening said heat pipe, or even puncturing one/any of them.
So I guess as the old saying goes, "if something seems too good to be true, it usually is", or "you get what you pay for". You can take your pick of both of those as I think both are as applicable as the other in this case.
So... having read many recommendations of the cheap chinese 6-heatpipe coolers from various andom internet sources (the snowman) https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000293017167.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.7f184c4dbNPhwj
I decided to "take the plunge" and ordered one on the 30th Dec (2019). It "promptly" arrived on the 22nd Jan which isn't all that bad considering.
First impressions before unboxing where that the box it was shipped in, which was the actual product box with no other external box which it was housed, is that it was quite flimsy and thin cardboard and it had definitely taken a bit of a bashing during it's long 3 week trip from China to the UK, none the less there was some foam padding inside so it "might be OK right?" Wrong.
Here's some pics of the heatsink and hopefully you can see from my poor HTC one M8 camera pictures that it's not quite symmetrical or straight in a few different ways.... LOL.
So... it seems to have taken a "few knocks" alright.... BUT aside from that the thing just doesnt seem to be very straight, it's kind of leaning, it's slanting and it's just a bit wonky also....
I could deal with that, I mean I've had a few HSF turn up in the post that have the occasional collection of bent fins where you can see it's obviouslly took a bump on it's rather long journey I mean, it doesn't look AS bad with both of the 120mm fans attached and you can barely tell that the thing isn't really straight in any which direction.
The kicker for me, is the base, the 6 direct contact heat-pipes, which do look so darn pretty in the stock photos on aliexpress... HOWEVER.... (and again excuse the poor camera shots) the reality is less pretty and pretty much deems it a product that is not fit for use, observe:
BUT aside from that the thing just doesnt seem to be very straight, it's kind of leaning, it's slanting and it's just a bit wonky also....I could deal with that, I mean I've had a few HSF turn up in the post that have the occasional collection of bent fins where you can see it's obviouslly took a bump on it's rather long journey I mean, it doesn't look AS bad with both of the 120mm fans attached and you can barely tell that the thing isn't really straight in any which direction.
The kicker for me, is the base, the 6 direct contact heat-pipes, which do look so darn pretty in the stock photos on aliexpress... HOWEVER.... (and again excuse the poor camera shots) the reality is less pretty and pretty much deems it a product that is not fit for use, observe:
Now the real ballkicker in all of this is if you look at the 2nd and 3rd pictures right above this comment, you will see that not all the heatpipes sit flush together and in fact there is a difference of probably 1mm between 2-3 of them on the whole, which doesnt sound like much of a big deal, but this means, I won't ever get contact with all of the heatpipes onto the CPU heat spreader and in fact only maybe one or 2 maybe making direct contact with it once installed, making 6 heatpipes a waste of time since most of the cooling potential is killed by piss poor manufacturing and quaity control.
My options are as follows:
1) It was only £16, it came from China and well.... we know how cheap products that come from china usually end up
2) I could try to use it and just be really generous with my TIM (thermal paste
) to see if that will fill the gaps and make up for the shoddy finish, though I;m not sure that much TIM would be able to compensate for having such an uneven base when you have the cooling potential of 6 heat pipes versus maybe 1 or 2 that are actually making good contact with the CPU.3) I could try to lap the base to try and get a smooth, flush and uniform base (as it should have been) though this in itself carries risks, look at the dents in some of those heatpipes that was done during the manufacturing process. I don't know how thin these heat pipes are and trying to shave as much as a 1mm off some of them and getting a flat base could result in my lapping too far and weakening said heat pipe, or even puncturing one/any of them.
So I guess as the old saying goes, "if something seems too good to be true, it usually is", or "you get what you pay for". You can take your pick of both of those as I think both are as applicable as the other in this case.
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