SUMMARY: With effective cooling becoming too important to overlook, it's getting hard to keep having to spend more money to get the job done right. That said, lets join Mike "Darthtanion" Wright as he takes a look at the Dynatron DY1206BH-625 HSF. It's a cooler that won't rape your wallet, but can it withstand the stress of your processor? Lets find out!
The heatsink of the DY1206BH-625 is made of copper that is surrounded by an aluminum shroud. I have come to enjoy the units with the shroud because they allow you to screw the fan into a hunk of aluminum and not directly into the fins of the sink. You’ll also notice that the shroud forces the airflow into a direct line directly toward the base of the unit. This will help make sure that the maximum amount of airflow gets to where it is needed most; namely the base sitting directly atop the processor core.
The sink measures in at a respectable 61mm x 64mm x 40mm and weighs 420 grams with the fan attached. This will ensure ample mass to aid in cooling but keep the footprint of the cooler small enough to fit on the tightest of motherboards. It is highly unlikely that you’ll be able to find a Socket A motherboard that not handle the size of this heatsink.
The fins of the heatsink are also made of copper so there is nothing to hinder the cooling capabilities of the HSF. The thin design of the fins allows for more of them to be used in the sink, thus creating more overall surface area. It has been proven time and time again that the greater the surface area, the greater the cooling potential. There is simply more area to absorb the heat from the base. Also note that the fins have been brazed directly to the base of the heatsink. There is no intermediate means of attaching them so there is less of a chance for the cooling to be hampered.
Here is something that I don’t see very often. The tops of the fins have been linked together to help make the entire structure more rigid. This can be very beneficial if you are ordering from a company that uses a second-rate shipping method. Since the fins are secured at the top as well as the bottom, there is little chance for them to become bent out of shape. The straighter fin placement will ensure that the airflow will always go straight down to the base of the sink. This is a very nice touch!
The Base
The base of the sink is also made of copper and it has been polished to a very nice finish. Some manufacturers will mill the base down a bit and then put some sort of lacquer on it to hide any imperfections. While this base did seem to have a thin coating of some sort, it wasn’t the thick mess that I sometimes see. The base had also been smoothed to a very flat finish before applying this coating. This results in an overall smooth surface area that will be mounting to the core. I noticed no gouges or defects in the base and the picture above shows that the finish is top notch.
The Fan
When it comes to brute force in a cooler, there are few fans available that will stand up against the might Delta units. That said, it was good to see just this fan in use with the DY1206BH-625. I did, however, have to remove the sink and double check the brand name and specifications of the fan. Why? Because when I cranked it up I didn’t get the ear-piercing whine that is normally associated with the 38CFM Delta’s. I was rather shocked to notice that while the fan could still be heard clearly, it didn’t sound like a vacuum cleaner on steroids.
The reason for this is the use of the AFB series of Delta fan. Most of today’s screamers are using the FFB series and it makes a huge amount of noise. I can’t say what the difference in manufacturing is, but the end result is a 6800 RPM fan that puts out 38-CFM airflow at a rated 46.5 dBA. This manages to give you a very effective amount of airflow but with a more tolerable noise.
Here is something that was rather a shock to me. This little 3-pin Molex connector is the only standard power means that comes with the fan. Even though it isn’t the FFB series Delta, the power draw from this fan is enough to fry out a motherboard header in just a short time. Any fast fan should have a 4-pin converter included.
The Clip
The clipping mechanism of this cooler is pretty straightforward. It utilizes all three lugs on both front and back so if you have manages to snap one off along the way (normally the middle one), then you’ll still be able to have a heatsink installed.
Something of note is the amount of pressure required to install the heatsink. Using this same type of clipping mechanism in the past, I have always found them to require a lot of force to install. This one didn’t have that same requirement. It seems that Dynatron has figured out the trick to getting the tension just right. It was a pretty simple matter to get the clip down to the front lugs of the socket.
There are, however, two disadvantages to this type of clip:
The top cutout doesn’t give enough room to fit a screwdriver blade easily into the slot right below it. It will fit, but you’ll be forced to move the screwdriver back and forth for a bit trying to get it from the being wedged into the slot. You could try just sitting the screwdriver sideways onto the top the slot, but then you’re taking a chance of slipping and gouging the electrical tracings of the motherboard. This is definitely not something that will make your day.
While the idea of having all three lugs being used is a great one, this particular clip design doesn’t like to go on easily to the lugs. I have grown accustomed to it, but there is an art to being able to wiggle the clip ever so slightly back and forth without moving the heatsink and ruining the TIM application in the process. The gap between the bottom of the socket lugs and the top of the motherboard is very small. Be careful here folks.
