Viewing page 2 of 4 pages.
Previous 1 2 3 4 Next
PHYSICAL DETAILS
The stack of aluminum fins that makes up the bulk of the Infinity
is enormous. At 160 mm tall, it may have trouble fitting into some narrower
cases, and its wide dimensions may also cause it to intrude into the space for
the power supply on some motherboards. Fortunately, the stack of fins does not
start right at the bottom; there should be enough clearance for motherboard
components, including RAM.
Scythe is aware of the potential for compatibility problems,
as they have embarked on an ambitious project to verify compatibility with current
motherboards from Abit, Asus, EPoX, and MSI. At the time of writing, data
is only available for Abit boards, but the level of detail will be quite
impressive if the project is finished. Some boards even have photos showing
how it was installed. Scythe has also taken pictures of the
Infinity in an Antec P180 case in an effort to show that the height of the
heatsink is not a problem — at least in this particular configuration.
A heatsink this big doesn't mess around.
Unlike the Ninja, the Infinity is not designed for passive use. It does
not have the symmetrical shape or the holes in the fins that allowed the Ninja
to take good advantage of system airflow. Although a fan can be mounted on any of its
four sides, the optimal air path clearly requires the fan to be mounted on one
of the wider sides. In this configuration, the air should flow parallel to two
lines of heatpipes that dissipate heat evenly through the full thickness of
the heatsink.
For the most part, fin spacing is wide enough that even very slow fans should
not have trouble forcing air through it. The fin density doubles up around the
heatpipes, which should increase the cooling potential with faster fans. The
two different fin densities should bear out Scythe's claim that the Infinity
can do well with either low or high airflow fans.
The double fin density is achieved by using three different sets of fins that
overlap around the heatpipes. One set spans the area between the two lines of
heatsinks, while another set hangs off each edge.
If you look closely, you can see three sets of fins in the tower.
Airflow is much more restricted from this direction.
Fins are interleaved around the heatpipes.
The Infinity uses five U-shaped heatpipes that extend 10 pipe lengths upwards from a thin copper
base. These should carry a lot of heat — the Ninja is the only heatsink
we've seen with more (12).
Sandwiched between the heatpipes and the bottom fins is a small secondary heatsink
that resembles the one found on the bottom of the
Samurai Z. The Infinity lacks the cross-cuts through that allow the air
to escape sideways in the Samurai Z, but they are otherwise identical.
| Help support this site, buy from one of our affiliate retailers! |
|
