Prime Cooler Hypercool III+ & Hypercool 4+

Examination:

After handling both heatsinks for a while, we were rather impressed with our findings. For the most part, the Hypercool III+ and 4+ continue with the foundation set forth by the Hypercool I and II. Although the Hypercool I and II used the same basic radial fin design, the surface area for the fins are significantly greater on the Hypercool III+ and 4+. In addition, the heatsinks now boast a 120mm super silent fan compared to the 92mm fan it was in the past. Eighty-Four copper fins surround the Hypercool III+'s super silent 120mm heatsink fan while 120 fins surround the Hypercool 4+. Both coolers are quite heavy, but with an extra 36 fins on the Hypercool 4+ an additional 55 grams is added to the mass. Unlike the Zalman coolers where the fins were straight, the Prime Cooler fins are relatively wavy to assist in the dissipation of heat.

When flipping both heatsinks over, we notice a copper core with a bit of aluminum. The two aluminum blocks shouldn't really encounter the CPU, but was used for mounting the fan and socket mounts. After a very close examination of the base, we were rather pleased to see a flat surface with not many imperfections to the human eye.

A picture is definitely worth a thousand words when examining these two enormous heatsinks. The only real flaw seen thus far with either heatsink was the use of a 3-pin fan connector rather than PWM 4-pin, but as not all motherboards are suitable for Pulse Width Modulation, we can see why Prime Cooler left out this feature.

Installation:

Although the installation instructions provided with both Hypercool heatsinks depict the entire process, we will go over the steps we used to mount the heatsinks on an LGA775 processor. To begin, we gathered all of the necessary parts and then removed the motherboard from the chassis. Unfortunately, the Hypercool doesn't utilize the default pushpin mounting method found for Socket T processors for mounting the heatsink. After the motherboard was out, we inserted bolts with rubber shims through all four holes that are generally occupied by the pushpins when using the default mounting method. Next, we placed a second set of rubber shims over the screws that protruded from the other side of the motherboard's PCB. We then screwed the bolts into the two clips.

After the clips were securely fashioned, the thermal paste can be applied to the bottom of the heatsink and then set atop the processor. To attach the heatsink, simply screw the two remaining bolts through the holes on the heatsink into the clips attached on the motherboard. The process is roughly the same for installing the heatsink on Socket 754, Socket A (462), and Socket 478.