Design and Functionality

Well, when we open the box we see a pretty heavy and large cooling solution. To be more exact, Cooler Master Hyper Z600 measures 127.28 x 127.28 x 160 mm and weighs 1045g:

The cooler is based on six copper nickel-plated heatpipes 6mm in diameter that go through the copper base also covered with a thin layer of nickel alloy:

The heatpipes hold an array of 48 aluminum plates. The heatsink array uses 0.4~0.5mm plates of two kinds: 20 large X-shaped plates and 28 smaller plates, alternating with the large ones that form the center of the heatsink array. The gap between the large plates is 4mm, and so is the gap between the two smaller plates inserted between the large ones:

There are only 7 smaller plates with a 2mm gap in the lower part of the heatsink. So, all in all, we can say that the heatsink plates of Cooler Master Hyper Z600 are spaced out at 2mm from each other, except on the edges. I have to say that it is too little for the cooler to cope with overclocked CPUs with natural convection only. Looks like Cooler Master engineers do know it very well, as they claim passive Hyper Z600 can cool processors with maximum 89W heat dissipation, which is the average operational value for non-overclocked processors running under high workload. At the same time, the small gap between the heatsink plates gives us hope that the cooler efficiency will improve dramatically once we install the fans on top of its heatsink and speed them up. We will certainly check it out during our test session, and now let’s continue with the discussion of the cooler design.

The heatpipes are placed into the heatsink body in a very interesting manner:

Four middle heatpipes go through the heatsink base and then bend like an arc distributing the heat more evenly over the heatsink plates. The two outer heatpipes that bear the smallest thermal workload go only over the edges of the large X-shaped heatsink plates. By the way, the photos above show very clearly that the few holes that seem to be necessary for the cooler assembly are the only ones: there are no other holes or slits in the heatsink plates. So, considering the cooler size, the heat dissipating surface of its heatsink is fairly large, although the manufacturer doesn’t state how big it is. And in order to calculate this value, we would have to take the cooler apart and remove one large and one small plate from the heatsink.