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Coolink ChipChilla Chipset Cooler Review

Posted by Spawne32 | Published in Cooling | [-no comments-]

Coolink, a well known name in performance cooling parts in Europe, recently released their new chipset cooler, the ChipChilla. Coolink itself has an excellent reputation for high build quality parts, you may be familiar with their unique blue colored fans. Today we are going to see just how well the cooling performance of the ChipChilla chipset cooler really is.

Intel based chipsets are commonly known for getting extremely hot, with that in mind, cooler manufacturers all across the world have at least one different kind of high performance chipset cooler available for purchase. Most newer chipset coolers include heatpipes to help remove the added heat output of newer and more powerful Intel based chipsets. The ChipChilla features a large 6mm dual heatpipe to deliver the heat to the high quality aluminum fins, where the whisper soft 60mm fan moves cool air across the cooler itself. The base of the ChipChilla is comprised of a rough machined copper. The kit itself includes universal mounting equipment in the form of a mounting hook, and push pins. Other parts include the thermal paste and a soft foam pad to use on IHS’less chipsets.

Coolink ChipChilla close up, Click to Enlarge.

Coolink ChipChilla base, Click to Enlarge.

Our DFI Lanparty test board’s retail cooler consists of a simple large aluminum block, sitting ontop of a P35 chipset. Its mounted with push pins as well, and there is no active cooling. Our installation starts with removal of the retail cooler, and prepping both the chipset and the ChipChilla for mounting, however we would like to remind you that removal of your retail northbridge chipset cooler could result in voiding your warranty with your manufacturer. The instructions included with the ChipChilla are extremely clear and easy to understand, and its reassuring to know that the ChipChilla features two way mounting to ensure you have some breathing room with large CPU heatsinks or strange video card coolers of the sort. After you have prepared everything for mounting, the installation is simple as follows, line the push pins up with the holes on the motherboard, and push down. Simple as that. Now, our issue with push pins is reliability, often times i have seen push pins pop out of the motherboard holes causing the heatsink to come loose, and result in motherboard failure. In the case of the ChipChilla’s push pin mounts, they appear to hold just fine.

Retail DFI Lanparty chipset cooler, Click to Enlarge.

ChipChilla instruction manual pic, Click to Enlarge.

ChipChilla mounted with push-pins, Click to Enlarge.

Both retail and the ChipChilla were tested using the Core Damage program, a reletively new program which causes severely unnessecary stress to your CPU and surrounding components. However it is our job here to make sure that everything passes our tests with flying colors. After a small 10 minute run, which was more then enough given the program we use, our retail northbridge heatsink, the large hunk of aluminum, measured exactly 40 degrees celcius, and our ambient room temperature was 68.5 degrees farenheit. After mounting the ChipChilla we ran a second core damage run, however, our temperatures wound up being higher after only 7 minutes. Normally in this situation there is a problem with mounting, or a large change in ambient temperature, however our room temp had only increased 1 degree farenheit, and our checks confirmed the ChipChilla was mounted properly. It was doing exactly as it was made to do, the heat was being channeled through the heatpipes from the chipset, however the included fan was just not nearly enough to remove the heat being put out, and our chipset increased in temperature instead of decreasing.

ChipChilla has good clearance all around, Click to Enlarge.

Retail cooler testing after 10 minutes, Click to Enlarge.

ChipChilla testing after 7 minutes, Click to Enlarge.

Comments/Suggestions

Coolink’s build quality remains superior however the design of the ChipChilla just doesnt do what its intended to do. Even with its solid construction and firm feel, it did the exact opposite of what its intended to do. With any product we test, we feel it is important to give vital feedback to the company on what we think could improve product quality. Several issues i myself noted with the ChipChilla was the small contact area the large 6mm heatpipe actually makes with the copper base plate, as well as the low CFM being put out by the included fan. I also feel it would be prudent to change from push pins to a more secure nut and bolt style mounting. A firmer more secure install could potentially help better heat transfer between the base and the chipset. I firmly believe that with small improvements in design, the performance of this heatsink can increase greatly.

What we liked…