The Ultra-120 and its Heat Pipes

As we mentioned before, the base is made of 2 copper pieces crossed by 4 pipes.

The side that is in contact with the CPU is thinner, so that the heat can reach the pipes faster. On the other hand, the upper part is much thicker to hold the assembly device.

The curvature of the fines produces an optical effect that makes them look sloping regarding the base surface.

The 4 pipes are bent into a U shape and their center is located in the heat sink base, so that the fluid within the pipes will heat there and quickly go the ends.   

The ’cold part’ consists of a series of fines designed exclusively by Thermalright. The impressive exchange surface of more than 3,500cm² is only part of the concept. The curved edges provide it with special features similar to winglets, which offer low resistance to air passage. As it is known, thermal convection depends, among other things, on the amount of air that moves on the surface, so any kind of help is highly appreciated. However, the lower the resistance is, the lower the effort the fan should do to pass the same amount of air, and as a result, a more silent performance is obtained.

Please, notice that the winglets’ shape and curvature reduce the resistance to air passage and make good use of the movement and direction produced by the fan instead of opposing to it.

The joint between the pipes and the fines is flawless; therefore the conduction in this area is guaranteed when passing the heat quickly from the pipes to the fines.

Assembly

To compare the results of the Ultra-120 with those of other tested devices, we decided to use the same platform:

Motherboard:  DFI LanParty NF4 Ultra-D
Processor:  AMD Venice 3000+
Memory: OCZ Gold EL VX (2 X 512)
Power supply: Sunbeamtech NUO 500W

When trying to assembly the Ultra-120, we ran into the first problem: the case where the hardware was assembled – an old full tower —didn’t have enough space in the motherboard area to work comfortably, so we proceeded to take out the removable tray, knowing that once the heat sink was installed, it would be impossible to put it back as its height is larger than the window where the tray should pass. The only option was then to remove the motherboard from the tray, put the tray again in its place and after that, assembly the motherboard with the Ultra-120 already installed. Nevertheless, we decided to leave the heat sink on the tray and work outside the case, which in some cases is more practical when testing components.

It was quite a surprise when we realized that the assembly screws included couldn't reach the motherboard's backplate. A quick visit to Thermalright’s website was enough to confirm the mistake we made in not anticipating that the DFI Lanparty’s backplate is not suitable for the assembly of the Ultra-120 and that we needed a different one, since the original backplate has only the nut’s screw thread located at the bottom, while screwing is required from the beginning of the backplate’s protuberance.

It was weekend. The backplate of another motherboard available was tight to it and waiting till Monday to install the Ultra-120 was not an option. So rapidly we decided to mount it with distinct, longer bolts put in a different way.  To solve their lack of precision, we kept the springs supplied in order to keep as far as possible the assembly pressure the original bolts and the corresponding backplate provide.   

It is important to say that instead of applying the included thermal paste, we used Artic Silver 5 as it is the one we always use and also to avoid any external factor that may change the results. On no account does this mean that the thermal paste's quality is poor; this was done just for comparative purposes.

DFI Lanparty original backplate. Note that there is only a screw thread at the bottom.

The bolts included with the Ultra-120 were replaced by others mounted from below, and to which a nut was added from the opposite end.