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When you take a look at the Coolermaster Heatpipe, the most distinctive feature are the 2 copper "Heatpipes" coming from the base of the Heatsink to the fins closer to the fan. I mean, there are a lot of heatsinks out there, but this one is one of the most intriguing for me. On the retail box I bought it stated that it is "#1 choice for overclocking", well we will test this cooler along AMD's retail cooler Heatsink/Fan. The AMD HSF is another Coolermaster heatsink, but this is obviously not for overclocking.

This is the EP5-6I11 from CoolerMaster's standard product line, the Heatpipe is

from the retail end.

This picture is from CoolerMaster.com, but the cooler from AMD

looks like this: 

This is the same stock Heatsink, with the same fan,

only with an AMD sticker.

Well, aluminum is a more cheaper material than copper, of course the differences are noticeable. Copper Heatsinks have less thermal resistance than Auminum heatsinks, which means that a cooler with less resistance, lets say .30 K/W (Kelvin/Watt) will outperform a cooler with .45 K/W. If a heatsink has less thermal resistance, the heat is conducted faster to the fins in order to be dissipated. This heatsink is about ~10 dollars (US). Both the fans are 60mm, only the heatpipe fan is taller and runs much faster at ~6800 rpm, while the AMD heatsinkfan runs at ~4800 rpms.

This heatsink weighs over 300 g., over AMD's weight limit, and the Aluminum cooler weights a mere ~130 g. The Aluminum cooler has high contact clips, basically you need to use more torque in order to get the cooler in, which is not necessarily a good thing, since I chipped an Athlon XP 1700+ this way. In the other hand, Coolermaster Heatpipe requires much less pressure, while using a thumb clip to secure the heatsink to the socket, which to say is much better than the aluminum cooler. I did not use the compound that came with the Coolermaster Heatpipe, since the paste is not for overclocking, instead I used Artic Silver 3, which generally reduces temperatures of the CPU core anywhere from ~3-6 C.

The coolermaster Heatpipe is whiny, at 46 decibels, it is quite annoying to be in front of the whole day, so I personally did a 12 to 7v modification which I will show soon in the modification section of the website. This way it will be around 34 dba's and 26 CFM (approx) so it is much more tolerable and the temperatures are about 40c. idle and 45 max load. This review will be done with the fan at 12v. connected to the motherboard.

The Heatpipes in the cooler is the most distinctive feature of course. The heatpipes "send" heat from the core (base) of the heatsink to the top where the fins are, it works like this:

You may ask, does it really work? I say yes, to an extent it will help keep temperatures a couple of degrees cooler, which is crucial in overclocking. This heatsink is different from other copper heatsinks which they all sport a 7000 rpm fan like this one.

The test setup is as follows:

-Athlon XP 1700+ (and @ 2000+, 150 Mhz FSB)

-384 MB Kingston DDR PC2100 @ PC 2400 (300 Mhz DDR)

-20 Gb Quantum Fireball qt20, 7000 rpm's.

-Geforce3 Ti 200, overclocked.

-Skyhawk Aluminum case, 6 low-power case fans (~20 CFM)

-32x10x40 CD-RW

-ECS K7S5A Motherboard (SiS 735 chipset)

_________________________________________________________

First, I tested the Aluminum Coolermaster EP5-6I11 under normal conditions, 133 FSB @ 1700+, then overclocked at 2000+ (1657 Mhz):

Then the Coolermaster Heatpipe (HHC-001) both at normal and overclocked:

The aluminum cooler's performance is to say bad, but for people that dont want to overclock, it will do fine. Do not attempt to overclock with this heatsink, either with thermal pads included, or with Artic Silver 3 (much better than thermal pads) or you will have this happen to you:

The "Blue Screen of death", this occurred after the CPU temp went above 56 C. on the Aluminum cooler overclocked to an Athlon XP 2000+, the CPU survived.

A temperature of the 55 C. may not seem like much, but I was testing the CPU with CPU stability Test 6.0, which utilizes the CPU 100%, plus I'm using the thermistor on the other side of the CPU, the real core temperature is much higher, but the ECS K7S5A doesn't have the sensor.

Here are some pictures of why the Coolermaster Heatpipe outperforms the Aluminum Coolermaster:

At the top-left you see that the copper base of the Coolermaster Heatpipe is very shiny. The Coolermaster EP5-6I11, at the bottom-right is somewhat shiny. At the Top-right is the Coolermaster Heatpipe, you can see all the fins and the two heatpipes that are soldered to the fins for the heat to be dissipated. At the bottom-left is the testing material that I used to review and that came included with the heatsinks.  

I give the Coolermaster Heatpipe a 9 out of 10. This is one of the best overclocking coolers out there, and it is relatively cheap, what a great value!

Pros:

-All copper design.

-Very shiny base

-Copper Heatpipes that work!

-Very low temperatures

Cons:

-Noisy Fan

-Clip design exerts very little pressure while the HSF being heavy.

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