The Cooler

Here we have the ASUS Silent Knight II. As mentioned before,the cooler uses six copper heatpipes that lead to a fin area. The fins cover around 65% of the fan that is centrally located between two banks of copper cooling fins.

A side view shows the heatpipes that are closest to the middle of the CPU die also being closest to the fan as they should be.

The back of the cooler looks much like the front. In this view you can see the way ASUS mounted the fan inside of the cooling fins.

The fins are not tightly packed on the outer edges but are condensed closer to the middle. This design allows for the best of both worlds, a high surface area with good air flow through the cooling fin area.

The power for the fan is delivered through a 4-pin PWM power connector that is round 8 inches long.

As you can see the base is not exactly a mirror finish; nothing that a little 1200 grit sand paper can't take care of, but who really has the time for that. With so many companies going to a nickel plated base for optimal surface contact I am surprised not to see it here.