Heatpipes have been in vogue for a while now, but once long ago it was vapour chambers which made for the best heatsinks, a fact which CoolerMaster has not forgotten.  Their new TPC-812 shows one of the reasons that heatpipes took over, as the vapour chamber never starts to show promise until the second fan was added.  The extra surface area from the combination of vapour chamber and heatpipes benefits from the increased airflow but at the cost of additional noise, whereas many heatpipe only coolers will not show the same level of improvement.  On the other hand they provide better cooling with only one fan making them the choice of people with sensitive ears.  X-bit Labs were not terribly impressed and suggest that maybe the vapour chamber should stay forgotten.

"CPU coolers have finally sported something new in their design. Although, I think, it would be more correct to say that it is more of a well forgotten old, rather than something completely new. Maybe it was a mistake to give up the vapor chamber technology a while back? Let’s find out with the help of the new Cooler Master cooler."

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