Cooling Best Low-Profile CPU Cooler on the Market?

[Kmpkt]

For those that have used or know about the Dynatron T318, how does it's performance compare to something of similar height in 1151 based heatsinks (it is 27mm tall for reference). Wondering if they could just do an adaptation of the vapour chamber technology to the 1151 form factor if they'd have a winner.

 

[Kmpkt]

Out of curiosity, how many people here would be interested in getting a custom variant of the LP53 if it were available? I am chatting with Tony at Thermolab regarding getting a slightly enhanced version of the unit with improved mounting for fans, easier (thumbscrew) based mounting for the base and possibly even a black shrouding so that the unit better matches builds (as a pure copper heatsink kind of sticks out like a sore thumb). I would likely ask them to ship the unit without fans so that the end user could select a 92mm fan that best suited their tastes. This would obviously also get these units stateside so it's not such a pain to get the LP53 in North America. Any feedback would be welcome.

 

[Ceros_X]

I'd back one. What is he looking at for MOQ and price?

 

[Kmpkt]

MOQ of 288 units and I'm trying to get clarification on pricing for both the retail unit as well as just the heatsink. They seem to be unwilling to do anything that involves modifying the units as apparently that requires new molds etc etc. Considering the unit is meant to take either an 80mm square fan or 92mm round fan, I really feel that the unit will be underwhelming at stock. What I am considering doing is developing an anodized aluminum shroud with a far superior fan mounting system to go over the heatsink, packaging it with a really good fan (possibly 92 x 92 x 15 Yate Loon or 92 x 92 x 25 Noctua Redux) and just rebranding it. Thoughts?

 

[Ceros_X]

I think it is a risky venture to sink your own capital into, as far as producing a shroud and packaging a fan with it. There seemed to be a decent amount of hype around the LP53 possibly being better than the Noctua. I would obtain a stock LP53, and then confirm the tests, then develop a mounting plate adapter that could be 3D printed (utilizes stock holes but can fit multiple fan sizes). Get some hype for it to be the next cooler king (maybe send your LP53 and bracket to SFFN to get tested) and then do a drive for just the black anodized heatsink while making the bracket available for free, on Shapeways or maybe bundled as a last resort. The problem here is that you're competing against Noctua and that is a bad place to be from a business perspective IMO (although I think a good group of your business could come enabling people with the NH-L9I to swap heatsinks and keep their existing fan).

 

[|||]

I wouldn't package it with a fan...for the SFF market, those of use with S4 Mini's, Sentry's, A4's, etc. wouldn't be able to use a 25mm fan. I think the only useful update to the LP53, without changing the design of the heatsink itself, is to including mounting hardware for AM4 and possibly a narrow-ILM LGA-2066 for X299 when/if something for that comes out.

As for a mounting solution, either a simple plate adapter or some non-janky rubber mounting that can reach down to the board mount adapters should be good.

Essentially, don't narrow the market to a handful of people.

 

[Kmpkt]

First off as far as the LP53 blowing the L9i out of the water if this review is to be believed, it's really no contest:

https://hardforum.com/threads/thermolab-cooltek-lp53-review.1923635/

I have a stock LP53 coming from Korea (which takes forever) and plan to try it out myself to confirm these findings. Furthermore I'd love to see how it performs with a Noctua 92mm x 92mm x 25mm Redux on it.

As far as what I would order, I am almost certain it would be heatsink only, as the price goes down by about 15% if you get rid of fan it comes with (which looks to be shit). With respect to AM4 fitment, I've asked them to look into this and hopefully they will be able to accommodate this as it benefits them in the future anyhow. X99 compatibility is probably a waste of time both because we already have the T318 and the rated dissipation of the LP53 is 100W which means I'd expect it to struggle with a 130W chip.

The point of designing a shroud would be twofold. Firstly from an aesthetic perspective, I think the the bright copper colour is a really big turn off for anyone that wants to do a matched build in this generation of ITX motherboards (Black/Grey/Red). Hiding it with a removable and/or paintable aluminum shroud would rectify this problem. Secondly the fan mounting solution on the LP53 is really poor and surprisingly it isn't designed to accept a 92mm fan despite a 94mm x 100mm width and length. Adding a cover with decent screw mounting seems like a really useful option to me.

Also, while I totally get that this is a significant risk to finance I am taxed at near 50% (Yaaaay Canada). If I can figure out a way to incur expenses starting up a small form factor based component business while indulging a hobby and helping my community I'd rather do that than give my money to Mr. Trudeau.

 

[EdZ]

I'd say that anodising the fins is the lest important improvement, and may not be worth the cost. Many may even prefer the bare copper appearance. A 92mm mounting solution alone would be a great improvement, and could even be sold separately if that reduces the MOQ (though that does not solve the LP53's general availability issue). An NH-L9i-style fixed-spacing thumbscrew mount would also be nice, but would require redesigning the existing mounting mechanism (currently protrudes though motherboard, and uses spring-tension of upper 'arms').

 

[stree]

I posted on here a while ago about a cooler I was making up from a budget Chinese cooler ( on which the fan had become noisy) and a fan from the spares section of the Arctic Cooling web site. This required a couple of small brackets making up, these were printed on a 3D printer.
I decided the cooler base was worth rigging up because of it`s decent copper base. Fins are ally and very low, only 27mm total height with original fan.
It is taller with the new fan, about 51mm total.
The new unit has been fitted for about 2 weeks, runs silent and idles at 32>34c and when reeally busy gets up to 58c max.
Very happy with this, and as a bonus, if I ever need another fan they are available cheaply from the manufacturer.
Saying that, I did get 2 fans, even then they only cast just over £5 for the pair.
I posted pics of this when in early stages, I will try to get some pics of the completed unit.....
PS looks a bit like that LP53, but more elegant............

 

[danger]

If you're going to do a custom LP53, offering some sort of way to be able to mount 120mm fans would be amazing.

 

[Kmpkt]

I'd say that anodising the fins is the lest important improvement, and may not be worth the cost.

Yeah it turns out they actually tried doing black plating for a European client a few years ago and it was catastrophic. The plating process nearly doubled the wholesale cost of the heatsink and it had a 50% failure rate. As such, the idea of a black plated all-copper heatsink is pretty much off the table I would say.

A 92mm mounting solution alone would be a great improvement, and could even be sold separately if that reduces the MOQ

Yeah I agree this would probably be the best option. What I am playing around with at this point is making a shroud that you can essentially drop over top and then anchor to the heatsink. I was thinking that perhaps it could use the existing rubber retainer holes to anchor itself. This unit could have 92mm mounting points and would by grace of the attachment solution be able to accommodate both 15mm and 25mm

 

[EdZ]

Maybe a pair of side clips, resembling the mounting solution on the Xigmatek Janus?

 

[lordzahl]

I just bought the lp53 and was planing to remove one of the VRM heatsinks to make it fit (which is quite easy, since they are screwed from bottom side of the board and not glued). Actually i was able to fit the lp53 without removing the VRM heatsink! One tip of the heat pipe is touching the larger VRM heatsink (which i have reapplied after screwing the lp53 in place, to be sure there is no mechanical stress).
In an open case i am very happy with the lp53, In prime95 i only just hit a maximum of 50°C (at ~20°C room temperature).
In my closed case there is only 1mm space left to the venting slits. In this case the fan becomes very loud and the temperature at load rises to ~67°C. It is clear that i will need a thinner fan.

I also ordered the AXP 100RH (but only did some dry testing, if it would fit). It does fit (in at least two directions), but if one wants to put a fan between the CPU and the heat sink, the open side of the heat sink with the fan should point to PciE slot. Overall the lp53 seems like the better solution with more and easier choices of available fans (maybe even a lot bigger fan which just fit my fan slits in the case?). Therefore i never fixed it to the motherboard (so i can send it back unharmed).

I will post imgur pictures, when their servers are recovered.
edit: Here they are:

 

[BeerNsoup]

Sorry if this is resurrecting something too far back... Is something around this cooler still in the works?

I saw that an AM4 adapter was something you were considering. The only mention of any low profile AM4 coolers I've been able to find is the nh-l9a which they aim to offer an upgrade kit for "later this year". They also say "it is not yet clear whether installation will be possible. We are currently exploring the available options and will provide more information at a later date."

I've also inquired with silverstone, and they have no plans to make the ar05 am4 compatible.

From what I can tell, you'd likely have a strong market position once the itx boards hit if you included AM4 compatibility.

 

[zovc]

I reckon our best way of influencing this as consumers/outsiders is to either do what you're doing, @BeerNsoup: contacting manufacturers and asking about it. (Expressing interest.) Or buying SFF coolers to demonstrate there's a market for it.

Perhaps petitions or similar things are persuasive, maybe asking if group orders could get the ball rolling?

 

[BeerNsoup]

I reckon our best way of influencing this as consumers/outsiders is to either do what you're doing, @BeerNsoup: contacting manufacturers and asking about it. (Expressing interest.) Or buying SFF coolers to demonstrate there's a market for it.

Perhaps petitions or similar things are persuasive, maybe asking if group orders could get the ball rolling?

Ehhh I haven't really been getting out there trying to make it happen ...

The Noctua stuff is just copy+pasted off their website, I didn't contact them. Maybe they've made some headway and are waiting until the itx boards release (can't imagine there's much of a market for the l9i/a coolers outside of itx users)?

I sent a quick email to silverstone because i saw one test that had the ar05 outperform the l9i which everyone seems to consider the low profile king. I was hoping it would be ryzen compatible lol.

I saw a Ryzen 5 simulation vid where they used a 1070 and 1060 in addition to the 1080s. When using a more typical SFF card like the 1060 the Ryzen 5's gaming performance was very similar to intel. 1080s are great and all, but I'm not likely to need/spend more than a 1060; so if ryzen is worse with a 1080 vs intel it's irrelevant to me (and likely a lot of SFF users) as long as it's similar with a 1060.

IF the simulation ends up being accurate and there isn't a significant difference in game performance for most SFF users, you're just left with better price + extra cores/threads for other tasks. It would seem to me that Ryzen 5 should be extremely competitive for the SFF crowd... at least once itx boards and low profile cpu coolers materialize. I have to think they will eventually, but how long that might take is anyone's guess.

 

[algapaf]

Sorry for necro'ing an old thread.

Why is the Lp53 such a pita to find in N.A?
Three weeks from South Korea is awfully long.

 

[Kmpkt]

Made in Korea and sold from Korea. Thermolab is a really small company with no warehousing facilities outside of Korea unfortunately.

 

[Colinreay]

Sorry for again resurrecting the thread, but... would a LP53 perform well with a 120mm fan above it? I was thinking of making a small STX box and just mounting a big static pressure fan that cools the CPU cooler as well as VRM/Mobo Chipset and any M.2 drives directly over the heatsink (maybe a few mm of clearance between fan and fins.) I guess the only thing that worries me is that the heatsink would not get airflow from the whole fan, instead a more isolated section of it.

Probably answered before, but ah well.

 

[Kmpkt]

Would likely be a really good cooling solution. I'm not certain the hub on a 120mm fan is that much larger than the hub on a 92mm fan (if at all) so the airflow dead zone shouldn't be that large an issue.