Introduction

Dual tower heatsinks usually provide the end user with two things; performance cooling, but also lack of space. Manufacturers are continually trying to not only better their rivals, but trying to develop new ways to have the ultimate cooling solution.  This quest is to be the best of the best, or to have great performance for the pound. From our stand point, air cooling can only go so far, yet continual tweaking is still being carried out to get that ‘just right’ product. Today we are looking at a heatsink that follows this trend; Coolink’s Corator DS.

Specifications

Size (HxWxD): 155 x 140 x 121 mm

Weight: 800g without fan / 1040g with fan

Material: Copper (base and heatpipes, Aluminium (base and cooling fins)

Fan Size: One 120 x 120 x 25mm

Socket: Intel LGA775, LGA1156, LGA1366 | AMD AM2, AM2+, AM3

The Cooler

Coolink have already graced our review line up before with their new line of SWiF2 fans – their 120mm range in particular is a big favourite of ours and this reviewer will say they are the best noise to performance fans on the market, especially for the price! The Corator DS (for which for the rest of the review we shall name the DS) follows Coolink’s motto of providing high quality inventive products that perform well and effectively, but also a product that’s not going to break the bank.

The DS comes in a very striking cool box for which the DS in securely packaged away inside by strong layers of cardboard throughout.

The cooler features Coolinks exclusive GDT Technology – Gapless Direct Touch, that allows for an all copper contact area to apply onto the CPU base for the ultimate in heat dispersion. Previous coolers featuring Direct Touch Heatpipes sometimes have the issue of not having all the heatpipes in contact with the CPU base, thus too much heat being directed onto more heatpipes than others and resulting in poor performance. GDT looks like a better way to rectify this issue.

Coolink still brings the concept of direct touch contact with the four 8mm all copper heatpipes that are attached to this gapless copper base. These heatpipes conduct the heat away from the base up through dual fin stacks and cool air is drawn through by our favourite PWM fan; the SWiF2 120P fan.

This fan is rated to rotate between 800 to 1700RPM with a dBA rating of 8.5 to 27.1 depending on the speed on the fan. For more information and testing, please see our Coolink SWiF2 Fan Review here.

The dual fin stacks are not the same. One side features 30 fins, the other 40. Why, do you ask? Coolink have developed a new form of cooling. When mounting the cooler, one must mount so that the wider fin stack is in front. This is so that the 120mm fan in the middle can easily draw in air effectively without being limited by tight fin spacing and effectively push the air through the denser fin stack. Coolink also says that this is to cut down on noise and provide optimal airflow efficiency with quiet operation.

Out of the box, there are both AMD and Intel mounting. The AMD kit supplied fits AM2/AM3, while the Intel package provides mounting on Socket LGA 775/1156/1366 platforms. This is the award winning new SecuFirm 2 system which is a multi socket mounting kit. This kit is also used on their big brother partner Noctua with their new NH-D14 cooler as seen here. There is also some Chillaramic thermal compound, two fan clips for one fan mounting, plus two instruction manuals for both AMD and Intel.

Test Method

All our review coolers follow the same rigorous testing conditions. We strapped on a single 120mmx38mm fan in the shape of the San Ace 9G1212H1011, widely considered one of the best fans on the market due to its under-volting ability (lower RPM) and high static pressure – perfect for heatsinks. This fan can produce up to 99CFM at full speed. If a heatsink is supplied with a fan, we shall be testing that stock fan on full RPM.

We now use LinX Build 0.6.1 for our entire load testing of heatsinks as this stresses the CPU more so than other load tests and really puts strain on the heatsinks. Idle testing was taken after a LinX run had finished. We allowed a ‘cooling off period’ of 10 minutes for the idle test. Both minimum and maximum temperatures were taken from Real Temp Build 3.58; an average of the cores was taken. Any energy saving features were disabled in the BIOS. OCZ Freeze was the TIM of choice.

All tests were run a minimum of 3 times (each run was followed by a remounting of the heatsink) and only the best results are represented.

Our test system can hit 4.41GHz stable with 1.45v. However, due to the high voltage, not all heatsinks can cope, so we decided on a ‘safe’ voltage level of 1.35v, and a lower stable clock speed of 4.20GHz for our testing.

Test System

-          Intel Core i7 930 @ 4.20GHz w/ 1.35v

-          Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7

-          6GB Crucial Ballistix Tracer @ 1600Mhz 7-7-7-18

-          80GB Intel X25-M Gen2

-          HIS ATI Radeon HD 5850

-          800W Fractal Design Newton R2

The Results

Analysis

Looking at the all important load testing on our overclocked and over-volted system, the best result the DS obtained was 82C using a high performance fan. We included our best CPU cooler we’ve tested from our AM3 results for which you can see the review here of the Cogage Arrow CPU Cooler.

With both coolers using the same fan setup, the DS is a massive 15C hotter than the Arrow! When you consider the fact that they’re both dual fin heatsinks, have the same four 8mm thick heatpipes, both come with a stock fan, and cost roughly the same, there is only going to be one choice. The DS is very disappointing in that respect. Even using the supplied fan (a favourite of ours) on full RPM, the DS returned a toasty 87C on our load testing. A full 20C hotter than the Cogage Arrow using a high performance fan! We were just as shocked as you are and thought we must have done something wrong. We mounted and re-mounted, tried different thermal pastes, tried the cooler in different orientations, checked to see if the mounting kit was damaged, and even checked the base of the DS to see how flat it was. Every effort we made proved fruitless as the best results we got are represented on our charts. Such a shame.

Conclusion

To be honest, we were expecting some great things from this cooler. The specifications’, hype, price, and proven winning quality from their fans all provided us with the anticipation of what this cooler could achieve. Unfortunately, our conclusion came to one simple statement; poor LGA1366 cooling ability.

With regards to the load testing using the high performance San Ace H1011 fan at full throttle, a topped out temperature of 82C on a i7 930 at 4.20GHz with 1.35v isn’t too bad considering these CPU’s can handle temperatures all the way to 100C before they start to become unstable and throttle. That said though, comparing that to the best CPU cooler right now, the Cogage Arrow, using the same conditions was a good 15C cooler. I’m afraid when that cooler costs the same as the DS at around £45 Inc VAT, it’s bad news for Coolink.

We’re not really sure why the DS is so far behind the Arrow as they use similar technology. If anything, we were expecting results to be the same or maybe better with Coolink’s GDT Technology we mentioned earlier. Never the less, a whole 15C hotter isn’t great and although 82C isn’t bad, if one was to use the stock fan at a comfortable 1300RPM or lower speed, one would be hitting temperatures exceeding 90C which is too much.

So what does this mean then in real terms? The DS isn’t a bad cooler at all. It comes with one of the best noise to CFM fans on the open market and is relatively cheap. Its supports both Intel and AMD platforms, and features some new inventive technology, albeit tweaks. However, if one wanted to use this cooler on the hottest platform for LGA1366 and was looking to overclock, we can’t recommend this cooler as you’ll be limited by temperatures and thus a lower overclock.

Coolink’s Corator DS is a nice looking cooler, but compared to the current leading champion of air coolers, the DS is no match at all. However, there is some good news at least for AMD users. Before we stopped our testing of coolers on the AM3 platform, we managed to do some testing on an overclocked AMD Phenom II X3 705e @ 4.0GHz w/ 1.5v. See below.

This is the DS’ saving grace. While it appears on LGA1366 its cooling ability isn’t great under load testing, AMD however looks to be very promising. Even with 1.5v pumped through the CPU running at 4.0GHz, the DS this time around is only 2C behind the Arrow and on par with Thermalright’s Venomous X. Testing was done using the high performance San Ace fan. I can hear Coolink breathing a sigh of relief.

Coolink’s Corator DS receives a 7/10 and a Bronze Award. While cooling on LGA1366 may well be sub-par, AM3 proved to be the sweat spot for this cooler.

Cons

-          Poor Socket LGA1366 cooling (if overclocking)

-          Mounting for one fan only

-          May have height/space restrictions

Pros

-          Great Socket AM3 cooling

-          Supplied with one top performance fan!

-          Supports all platforms out of the box!

-          Fast, easy, and secure mounting

-          Very secure packaging!

-          Cost

-          5 Year Warranty!

Thanks

A special mention to Andreas at Coolink for supplying the cooler for review!