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PHYSICAL DETAILS
Like most aftermarket heatsinks, the Volar is built on heatpipes that extend upwards
to the fins from a thin copper base. It's a good design, which is why it's
so common. What's not so common are the fins, which at first glance appear
to be cut from a single piece of extruded aluminum. Closer examination reveals
that the fin block is actually two pieces that fit together, sandwiching a loop
of heatpipe in between them.
A frameless 120mm fan.
The fin block uses the same twisted, split-fin design as Intel's
stock heatsink, though it lacks the solid copper core and has been
expanded to fit the dimensions of a 120mm fan.
A closer look at fin spacing, with the metal mesh visible in the background.
Fin spacing is reasonably wide, but the fins are thicker than usual because
they are cut from a two stacked pieces of extruded aluminum rather than individual
bits of metal. The block itself is just over an inch thick, enough to
provide plenty of surface area, but possibly too much for a low speed fan to
force air through. The edges of the fin block are wrapped with a strip
of wire mesh that helps direct most of the airflow down through the fins rather
than letting the air spray out of the sides.
The fins are mounted at roughly a 45° angle over the base.
The fin block is mounted at an angle rather than vertically or
horizontally. The reason for this design is unclear, but we may
speculate that it is intended to be a compromise between a high
back-pressure top-down design and a tower design that doesn't provide
any airflow to the VRM modules around the CPU socket. Reducing
the dimensions may also have been a goal, but the 141 mm height is
still pretty tall.
Heatpipe legs leave plenty of clearance underneath.
The fin block is mounted on four heatpipes that rise from the base. The
two shorter legs are actually opposite ends of a single heatpipe that is bent
into a loop and wedged between the two halves of the fin block — hence
Gigabyte's specification of three, not four heatpipes.
Fins are spaced wide enough that the fan blades are clearly visible through them.
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