Design and Functionality

There is nothing revolutionary about the heatsink design. It is a tower heatsink sitting on four copper heatpipes 6mm in diameter that go through a copper base plate:

There are 56 aluminum plates, each 0.25~0.3mm thick forming a heatsink array. The gaps between the plates are smaller than those on Achilles: 1.5mm. The cooler measured 121 x 61 x 156mm and weighs 670g (practically the same as XIGMATEK Achilles S1284 we have just discussed).

The main feature distinguishing ZEROtherm ZEN ZF120 from other similar solutions is the so called honey-comb structure, when the central part of the plates is pushed in, while the sides are lifted up. According to the manufacturer, this creates better airflow turbulence and improves cooling efficiency.

At the same time, unlike XIGMATEK cooler, the sides of the ZEROtherm ZEN ZF120 are not covered with anything, so we can assume that part of the airflow escaping through the sides of the heatsink will be wasted.

It is interesting that even when we taped over the sides of ZEROtherm ZEN ZF120 heatsink, there was no change in the cooling efficiency and the air hardly escaped through the cooler sides. Maybe it was the central honeycomb structure that somehow concentrated the airflow in the middle of the cooler reducing the losses almost to null. I would also like to add that the heat dissipating surface of the cooler heatsink measures 6,827sq.cm, which is 79sq.cm larger than by the flagship product of the ZEROtherm cooler lineup – Nirvana NV120 Premium.

The cooler base is covered with protective plastic film with a warning that it has to be removed before installation: