Thoughts on the Jiushark JF13K Top-Down cooler?

[iolaus]

I actually typed this up as a response to an old post, so forgive the ancient links. There has been almost no discussion of this particular cooler on the site, so what little has occurred seemed relevant. Now that the Jiushark has been out in the wild for a while, I thought revisiting it might be interesting.

Here we go, the first review

That's the review that first put it on my radar. I wondered how well it would work in my GD09 case, but I've got an Assassin Mini on the 9700K in there that's working just great. When the AIO for the 9700K in my Corsair Air 540 case died, I stuck a salvaged single-tower 120 in it 'til I figured out something better. Seemed like a good time to try the Jiushark.

It's a PITA to install, and it blows the exhaust into the RAM. I saw someone somewhere mention that depending on your case and where you have the GPU, you can turn the orientation so that the RAM is clear.

It does appear to have dropped my temps a bit from what I had in there. I was idling at 35-40 before the swap; now I idle at 30-35, and dip down to 27-28 occasionally. I reset my min/max while typing up this post, so this reflects my temps during casual use...

...and while I don't have a pre-swap test to compare, this was after running Prime95 for about a half hour. It was peaking at around 150 watts while I was watching. Looking at it a half hour later, it's still exactly the same max temps.

I agree. I personally don't have a problem with top down fan directions. As you note, they tend to offer good cooling to sensitive components surrounding the socket. They also may interfere less with desired front to back flow of cool air through cases.

I'm wondering... with sufficient air flow, I imagine similar benefits would be achieved with a bottom up flow - i.e., fans pulling the air through, refreshing the ambient air below with fresh air from the sides.

I read somewhere that "push" fans focus more air-flow to specific regions (the ring below the fins) on the heatsink/radiator, while "pull" fans, given a little space to work with, can create a more even vacuum that affects a wider area - center axis area and the corners. With a high static pressure fan, that would seem to be a more efficient configuration for the heatsink itself, and might keep the underlying components cooler than a top-down flow.

Any why anyone would buy a low profile cooler just to spend extra to swap out the 15mm thin fans with standard 25mm fans, as suggested above, is just baffling to me. And they would still be 120mm fans which, as a general rule, have to spin faster (therefor louder) than a 140mm of equal quality to move the same amount of air.

LOL... My first thought before purchase was "Will better fans improve anything" Next thought was, "Can I use a couple of adapters to install 140mm fans?" For the moment, I'm sticking with the stock fans, but I'm willing to play with it.

I'm a big fan of overkill even if not needed, and I'm the type that tinkers with things just for the fun of tinkering (Heh...the mix of different salvaged fans in my Corsair case would horrify the aesthetically focused individuals). My case is relatively open, so the low-profile thing just gives me more room to play.

Looks like a MF'er to install. But uses the push pin design like stock coolers, those things suck.

Except with stock coolers, you push then make a 1/4 turn to lock in place. I don't see how these could be locked in place.

I gotta admit it's a PITA to install on an existing build. Screws are loosely held in place on the heatsink, go through the MB, and are held down with nuts on the other side. It's a PITA to get them all lined up proper and then hold in place while you flip it over and hold the backplate in place while you put the nuts on - worse if you are dealing with the whole case to do so. With all the rocking, I'd be pretty certain the paste is uneven now. It probably would have been easier to mount to the MB before installing - or rather, mount the MB to it.

 

[Bill_Bright]

I'm wondering... with sufficient air flow, I imagine similar benefits would be achieved with a bottom up flow - i.e.,

No. First, I have never heard of a bottom up flow CPU cooler - but my guess for that is because they just would not work. They would cool the CPU poorly because the actual force of the moving air (being pulled in from all directions) would be much less than top down. And they would offer zero cooling to the components surrounding the socket.

When a cooler is marketed as top-down, that typically mean opposed to side-firing.

Here's another review: Jiushark JF13K Diamond Review: Innovative Air Cooling, Ideal for SFF Systems | Tom's Hardware