Page 2 - Physical Look - Hardware
The SilverStone XED120S is only available in silver. Shown in the photos on the next page, the top of the heatsink has a cover plate, secured in place by two Philips screws. The center of the cover is elevated and has the SilverStone logo engraved in the middle. It is common to use heatsink covers to hide the heatpipe ends, but SilverStone has chosen to let them show through the circular cutouts on the cover. The material of the cover feels like aluminium, but it has a matte finish as opposed to the glossy finish of the heatsink.
Considering the dimensions of the SilverStone XED120S, it falls into the common category of 120mm coolers, which should fit in most mid-tower ATX cases. It measures 120mm in length, 120mm in width, and 145mm in height. I counted there to be 128 aluminum fins, which is more than the average dual tower heatsink. SilverStone was able to achieve this by packing the fins closer together at about 1.5mm rather than the common 2mm. It was difficult to measure the dimensions of the fins due to all the curves and odd shapes on the heatsink, but I calculated the total surface area of the fins to be about 9.2m2 with some rough measurements and ignoring the thickness of each fin. Six heatpips run through both towers in a U shape to create effectively twelve heatpips. The net weight of the cooler, including the fans, is 972g. Without the fans, I measured it to be 731g.
The SilverStone XED120S is primarily aluminum. Making the heatsink out of copper could lead to enhanced thermal performance due to the thermal conductivity of pure copper being 401W/mK compared to pure aluminum's 237W/mK. However, despite the thermal conductivity of copper being close to double that of aluminum, copper heatsinks are almost nonexistent in the CPU air cooler market. The reason for this is because aluminum makes more sense from a practical standpoint. Aluminum is lighter, cheaper, and easier to manufacture. This lighter material also means there is less strain on the motherboard when the heatsink is in place.
The SilverStone XED120S includes only one fan, but SilverStone has included mounting clips that can be used to attach any case fans that you may have lying around. The included fan is also attached to the heatsink cover. This seven blade PWM fan has a maximum airflow of 108CFM and a maximum air pressure of 8.24mmH₂O. The dimensions are 120mm in length, 30mm in width, and 120mm in height, not including the heatsink cover. Air cooler fans are usually 25mm thick, but the 30mm thickness on this fan will likely increase the performance. Each blade also has a slight dip near the middle, which may help limit boundary layer separation at the potential cost of louder noise from turbulence. For the internal spinning mechanism, the fans use a dual ball bearing design, which produces louder noise compared to other options. The mean time to failure of these bearings is rated to be 70,000 hours. When spinning at the max speed of 3000RPM, SilverStone reports the noise level to be 44.9dBA. This equates to a volume slightly louder than the hum of a refrigerator, but I expect it to be louder due to the design choices mentioned above and the high max speed. Another detail to note is the lack of cable insulation on the cable. It would be nice if the wires were wrapped in black insulation since the red, yellow, and blue cables braided together are not very sightly.
The contact plate of the SilverStone XED120S is a solid metal base design, likely made with pure copper. Both the base plate and the copper heatpipes are nickel-plated to enhance corrosion protection. Although pure nickel has a much lower thermal conductivity than pure copper of about 91W/mK compared to 401W/mK, it is only a thin layer, so it should reduce the negative effect it has on the performance. The copper base also allows for a more even distribution of heat to the heatpipes at the expense of lower thermal conductivity. The thermal conductivity of heat pipes can range from the thousands to hundreds of thousands, which is much higher than pure copper. From a visual inspection of the contact plate, I also noticed a few small dents. It does not look pleasing, but it would likely not affect the performance.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Hardware
3. Installation and Test Results
4. Conclusion
