AeroCool GT-1000 Heatsink Review

     Since 2002, AeroCool has been providing innovative thermal cooling solutions to the high-end PC enthusiast.  Today we are going to take a closer look at their GT-1000 CPU cooler.  The gold plated heat pipe system sure can bring on the bling, Lets see if this heatsink is more than just looks.

     With the GT-1000, AeroCool joins the rapidly expanding selection of heatsinks to utilize the heatpipe architecture to provide a higher degree of heat transfer from the CPU to the heat sink.  The goal of a good heatpipe system is to rapidly transfer heat to the fin system for dissipation with little or no additional noise to the system.  The GT-1000 also uses a 92 mm fan to increase the efficiency of the gold plated fins.

     A quick look inside the box reveals a wealth of hardware is included.  The GT-1000 includes mounting hardware for both AMD K7 and K8 installations; as well as the Pentium P4 and the Socket 775.

     These pictures illustrate the necessary installation hardware required for the K7, K8, P4 and Socket 775 installs; respectively.

     A piece of protective film covers the contact surface.  Once removed, the highly polished surface can be seen.  Also note the three large heatpipes leading up from each side of the surface.  Gold is a great material for heat transfer and it looks fantastic too.

     From a different angle the 36 gold plated fins can be seen running the length of the pipes.  You can also see the mounting for both the included 92 mm fan and a standard size 80 mm fan.  A fan can be mounted on both sides to create a wind tunnel over the fins for maximum heat dissipation. With a length of 296 mm per heat pipe, many installations may not even need the fan.

Installation:

     For this review I will be mounting the GT-1000 using the Socket 939 kit.  The motherboard used is the ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe running an AMD Athlon 64 3000+.  The install is actually quite simple although removal of the motherboard is required.  In the picture above you will see I have removed the smaller heatsink by removing the two mounting screws.  The mounting bracket is placed into the fitted grove and then remounted to the heatsink.  I placed a dab of the included heat sink compound under it just to be safe!

     The next step is to remove the socket mounting screws from the mother board and mount the GT-1000 using the same screw locations as shown above.  Again, don't forget the goop!