The Cooler

On the heatpipe side we see that the Nano uses two heatpipes that move heat away from the processor die and move it out to the edges of the heatsink. By spreading the heat to the outside of the heat area, more of the fin area is able to cool down the base, making for a more efficient cooler.

As stated before, the cooler with the fan is only 39mm tall. Here you can see just how small that is.

On this side image we see that the fins are not packed too tight making low speed fans ideal for cooling the heatsink. When the fins are packed close together you need a higher output fan to be able to move the air over the surface.

The Nano uses an 80mm fan with a 4-pin PWM connector, allowing your motherboard to take control of the fan speed. In our testing we use 7 and 12 volts to simulate this type of control.

From the factory, the heatsink comes with pre-installed heatsink paste pre-applied. We also get a good look at the mounting system. When installing the heatsink you will need to remove your Intel Socket 775 motherboard, place the cooler on the processor and run the supplied screws to the heatsink through the holes. The brackets on the heatsink flex allowing the correct amount of pressure to be applied to the processor.

The CPU to heatsink contact surface is shiny, but not perfectly flat. As you can see in the image, there are a few machine marks on the surface.