Aerocool DP-102:The
Aerocool DP-102 has been around for some time now, it’s a copper tower heatsink with a heatpipe in the middle; using a removable bracket you are able to mount up to two fans, either 70mm or 80mm in size. I received an older version which relies on the Intel bracket for installation, however the latest version available from Aerocool features a backplate.
Specifications:This heatsink can be installed on:
Copper heatpipe
70 and 80mm fan support (2*)
580gr without fan
Construction:
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The heatsink itself is well constructed, the base is fairly smooth but machine marks can be seen. Switching between AXP and P4 platforms requires changing the mounting plate you see on the pictures above. The fan bracket needs some adaptation in order to switch between support for 70 and 80mm sized fans.
Installation:
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The older version of the DP-102 I’m testing here requires the removal of the fan bracket to be able to push down the clips into the lips of the P4 bracket. This is fairly easy and doesn’t require you to remove the motherboard, however…
Problems and issues:
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No matter in which direction I placed the fan holder, it would obstruct with Intel bracket and prevent proper installation of any fan. In the picture on the right you can see the only way I was able to mount the fan, but this in turn obstructed the DDR ram slots on the motherboard, so I ended up taping the 80mm Coolink fan to the heatsink for the performance tests.
I contacted Aerocool concerning this problem and they confirmed that I had an outdated version of this heatsink:
Our DP-102 original design was for AMD socket with dual fans option of 6cm/7cm fan and with 7 to 8cm fan adaptor for 8 cm fan. YES, there is a problem to install 8cm fan with the P4 clip-on clips in our first edition of DP-102. This is a known problem but we have solved this problem in our new version of DP-102. Instated of using clip-on clips, we are using 4 spring-screws and back plate to mount the heat sink
Performance:
So after taping the 80mm Coolink to one side of the Tower I started my temperature tests:
With the fan at High settings the DP-102 turns in some respectable results, at low speed settings it beats the Intel cooler while being less noisy. Although I wasn’t able to test it here, mounting 2x fan will give you a nice balance between noise and performance as seen in this review at Viperlair, do note that it will require a lot of free space around the CPU socket and won’t be possible on all motherboards.
Let’s take a look at its brother, the HT-101 ->
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