Closer look
The overall look of the V10 is different from anything else that is on the market today. From some angles it looks much like a fake mask. Or it could just be me. The cooler is made up of a lot of aluminum fins, two 120mm cooling fans and ten heat pipes. This all accounts for the 2.65 pounds of mass you see here. This is the second heaviest cooler we have had in the lab second to the Thermalright TRUE Copper. The shroud that covers the entire cooler makes the cooler look bigger than it really is. I wish I had the proper tools to remove the shroud but at this time I don't. But from the various angles I took the photos you can get the just of what the cooler is about.
The shroud that covers the cooler has a love or hate it look to it. The black and chrome cover we believe has any bearing on the performance of the cooler so it could possibly be remove and not used if not wanted. But has else would Coolermaster be able to brand the cooler. If you are wondering how the air escapes the cooler because of the shroud there are slits and mesh opening through out the shroud. Here you get a clear look of the mesh area over the second fan that hangs over the DIMM slots.
Below are pictures of heat pipes that runs from the base up through all three sets of fins. Coolermaster was pretty clever in figuring out the way in which the pipes would be laid out. Because of this cleverness it was difficult for me to count the pipes correctly. Just two of the pipes begin at the base which over the DIMM area fins. The eight other pipes start at the area in which the T.E.C. sits.
The aid in heat dissipation the V10 is help via two 120m cooling fans. One of the fans is sandwiched between the two sets of aluminum fins that sits atop the cooler. The second fan sets up camp on top of the aluminum fins that hoover the DIMM slots. Both fans are PWM controlled via a four header to the motherboard. The T.E.C. pad is powered by the power supply itself via a standard four pin molex. Determined by load and heat the fans can speed as slow as 800RPM and as much as 2400RPM. The highest RPM level they both push 90CFM of air.
The base of the V10 is not too bad when it comes to shine and flatness. And to make up the base copper is used and then plated with nickel. The top half of the base is the control PCB from the T.E.C.
We borrowed this image from Coolermaster's web site to show you the make up of the aluminum fins. There are a total of three tiers: two that tower above the CPU area and one that hovers the DIMM slots.
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