Review: Global WIN CAK38 Heatsink (Page 1/3)

Posted: May 4th, 2001
Written by: Tuan "Solace" Nguyen

Introduction

In the thermal management world, the company known as Global WIN needs no introduction. Producing high-quality heatsinks at a low cost is its specialty. GW delivers heatsinks in all markets, from the standardized OEM markets to the extreme PC enthusiast market, providing effective cooling solutions for each.

Today, I’m taking a look at Global WIN’s newest heatsink, the CAK38. If you’re a fan of Global WIN’s, you’ll immediately recognize the ingenious naming conventions that Global WIN uses. I hope you picked up the sarcasm in that one.

As faster and hotter processors come on the market, we all need heatsinks that can handle the burn. A lot of people are overclocking already fast processors so without an effective cooling solution, they’ll just wind up with some expensive sand. It’s no surprise that heatsink manufacturers pay attention to this and have been developing all copper heatsinks for use. Copper is a better heat conductor than aluminum so it only makes sense to use it in situations of extreme heat.

There are drawbacks to making an all copper heatsink though. First is the weight. Copper heatsinks are much heavier than their aluminum counterparts. Second, copper is harder to work with because it’s softer than aluminum. These are some of the reasons why most manufactures have stuck with aluminum as their material of choice or they have copper embedded bases in their heatsinks.

CAK38

Once you pick up the CAK38, you’ll immediately be in awe at its weight. It is definitely one of the heftiest heatsinks that I’ve held and I’ve seen larger, lighter aluminum heatsinks than the CAK38. Looking at the picture above, the CAK38 isn’t large at all. It’s a standard 65x65x35mm heatsink that comes shipped with a 38CFM 60mm Delta fan. By now, most people know that this fan is extremely loud. When someone asks me how loud it is, I usually say it’s a hair dryer on setting low. I also found that if you have carpeting and place your PC underneath your desk on the carpet, it reduces noise by a significant amount. The Delta becomes much more pleasant to listen to -- but not that I spend time listening to it.

Let’s take a look below the decks.

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