Hardware Bistro

Product: Corator DS
Manufacturer: Coolink
Supplied by: Coolink
Price: 59.90USD/RM182
Launch Date: Jan 2010

 

Coolink and Noctua are quite close to each other with their shared know-how and appointed marketing PR team but both of them are having different product development and markets where premium quality is Noctua priority concern while Coolink comes with much attractive price point. Today we will have a chance to take a closer look on Coolink tower CPU cooler; Corator DS.

 

Company Profile

Coolink is a brand of the Kolink International Corporation and stands for an effective conjunction of no-frills performance, excellent quality and attractive pricing. Coolink - the direct link to affordable high-end cooling! Kolink International Corporation is a cooling specialist established in 1996 and well known among industry insiders. Throughout the years, Kolink designed and manufactured many top-performing heat-sinks under various brand names that succeeded in international markets. An experienced R&D team and ultra-modern production plants in Taiwan ensure continuous progress, efficient manufacturing conditions and strict quality standards.

 

Features

- Four 8mm heatpipes
- Asymmetrical dual fin stacks
- Gapless Direct Touch technology
- SWiF2-120P high-performance 120mm fan
- PWM fan speed control
- SecuFirm2 multi-socket mounting system
- Chillaramic thermal compound

 

Specifications

Package & Contents

 

Besides that technical know-how, it seems Coolink and Noctua are also sharing their packaging team as well; just the printings are different. The whole packaging of Coolink Corator DS does not come with a single foam; environment friendly. FYI Coolink Corator DS comes with 5 years warranty which is definitely sufficient and worth for it.

 

Standard accessories are bundled for Coolink Corator DS which are 120mm cooling fan, Chillaramic thermal compound, user manuals and two pack of mounting kits for both Intel and AMD sockets. The given user manuals provide very clear step by step installation guides on top of the simplified SecuFirm2 multi-socket mounting method.

 

SecuFirm2 multi-socket mounting method is one of the most simplified CPU cooler installation methods that we have seen and it is suitable for varies Intel and AMD sockets. These kits come with back plates, mounting bars, spacers and screws. No additional fan clip is provided as Coolink Corator DS is only able to support a single 120mm cooling fan. 

 

A Closer Look on Coolink Corator DS

Unlike other computer thermal & cooling vendors, Coolink is not a mass producer as they have very limited products in their database; almost one or two models in each of the product line. Currently Coolink Corator DS is the only available CPU cooler at this moment which is targeted for performance and above systems including enthusiasts, overclockers.

 

Most of the top performance CPU coolers are designed in tower form factor and this is same for Coolink Corator DS. In additional Coolink Corator DS is having sandwiched type of cooling design where the cooling fan is slotted in between the two aluminum blocks; this could provide greater cooling efficiency by maintaining a single unit of fan.

The dimension and weight of Coolink Corator DS including the fan are 160 x 141 x 119mm and 1040 grams. This size is pretty standard for such performance CPU cooler but the weight is slightly more than others which could be due to its quality materials. Coolink Corator DS is a universal CPU cooler and full compatible list could be verified here.

 

Four high quality 8mm copper heat pipes are embedded on Coolink Corator DS which plays an important role to link up the copper base together with the two aluminum blocks. These U-shaped copper heat pipes allow bidirectional flowing which further enhances its cooling efficiency; it performs better than C-shaped heat pipe. 

 

Since Coolink Corator DS is a sandwiched tower CPU cooler, it comes with two identical aluminum blocks with strong and solid fins; not easily to get damaged or dented. By the way such sandwiched CPU cooler has room for additional cooling fans (probably additional two units) just like Noctua NH-D14 but some manual fan mounting is required. 

 

The 120 cooling fan is mounted on the Coolink Corator DS with two fan clips which is exactly same with what Noctua is using for all their CPU coolers. This fan mounting method is the most user friendly method that we have tested as it is easy to mount the fan firmly on the CPU cooler even inside the chassis; a long nose plier is ideal to complete this task.

 

Vibration absorbers are added on the Coolink Corator DS's aluminum blocks so that the vibration noise due to the operating fan could be minimized. Coolink Corator DS comes with simplified installation method where the mounting bar with spring screws on its cooler base is compatible for both of the Intel and AMD sockets; SecuFirm2 multi-socket mounting system.

 

We have been hearing direct touch technology all these while and this is our first time heard about the gapless direct touch technology which has been applied on Coolink Corator DS. The "gapless" term here refers that the gaps between the heat pipes are filled with copper material so that it looks nicer, flatter but in fact it should work the same like direct touch technology.

 

SWiF2-120P is bundled for Coolink Corator DS which is the Coolink high-performance 120mm cooling fan. Besides that it is also a PWM fan with auto fan speed controller according to the processor loading; controlled by the motherboard BIOS. Fan speed, noise and airflow ranges are 800 ~ 1700RPM, 8.5 ~ 27.1 dBA and 60.4 ~ 127.6; quite a decent 120mm cooling fan.

 

Installation, Testing & Performance

 

A back plate is required to secure the Coolink Corator DS on the motherboard which is troublesome but necessary especially for such heavy-weight CPU cooler. Black plastic spacers are used to heightened up the installation so that the nearby motherboard components such as MOSFETs, capacitors, DIMMs will not get blocked.

 

Two mounting bars together with four thumb screws are used to fasten the back plate on the motherboard. The mounting bars could be installed in north-south or east-west direction; depends on the motherboard design. Next will be fastening the Coolink Corator DS CPU cooler on top of the mounting bars; fan has to be removed prior to this installation.

Once all these steps are done then it is time to slot in the 120mm PWM fan and secure it with the provided fan clips. This step could be easier if a plier or some similar tool is used to hook up the fan clips on the Coolink Corator DS. Lastly connect the fan cable on the motherboard CPU 4-pin fan connector instead of other 3-pin connector in order for it to be auto controlled by the motherboard BIOS according to the processor loading. 

Overall we did not encounter any compatible issue on our rig since our chassis comes with a pre-cut opening hole on the motherboard plate for back plate installation but we do advise the end user to verify whether such high tower CPU cooler is compatible with their chassis or not or else the side panel is probably not able to be closed especially those side panel comes with cooling fan.

Test Bed

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8300 @ 2.83GHz
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3/Gigabyte G31M-ES2L
Heatsink: Coolink Corator DS
Memory: Kingston HyperX 4GB DDR2 8500
Hard Drive: 250GB 7200RPM 8MB Seagate
Graphic Card: Galaxy GeForce GTX260+
PCIe: Aten IC320U USB 3.0
Casing: BitFenix Colossus Venom
HDD Cage: Icy Dock MB994SP-4S
PSU: OCZ ZX 850W
Optical Drive: HLDS DVD RW +/-
Controller: Aerocool Touch 2000
Monitor: Dell 22" Wide Screen LCD
Speaker: Edifier R501
Mouse: SteelSeries Ikari Laser
Mouse Pad: SteelSeries QcK+
HeadSet: SteelSeries 3H
Router: TRENDnet TEW-639GR
Operating System: Window XP Pro SP2/Win 7 HP
Ambient Temperature: 27 Degree Celsius

Here is the performance result of Coolink Corator DS that we have obtained based on our hardware setup. Overall Coolink Corator DS performs as good as other performance CPU coolers where it gives decent and reasonable performance with its noise and cost. The noise is audible when it is running at full speed @ 1700RPM but such noise level is still acceptable. The Coolink Corator DS's performance is stopped by its single 120mm cooling fan as most of the other performance CPU coolers come with more than single cooling fan. However since Coolink Corator DS has been designed in such way so we have to accept it but if you would like to see an improved version of Coolink Corator DS then you could modify the cooler by mounting additional cooling fans on it; either front, rear or both sides.

 

Verdicts

The technology background of Coolink is not weak at all with their well-known OEM products and this point is even stronger after we have tested their Corator DS CPU cooler. Most of the CPU coolers come with similar ways but performance, quality, prices are quite different and Coolink Corator DS is definitely one of the decent CPU coolers. Besides that Coolink Corator DS is also paired with gapless direct touch technology, SecuFirm 2 simplified installation kit, SWiF2 high performance PWM fan and so on. The retail price of Coolink Corator DS is about USD59.90; slightly cheaper than other branded CPU coolers and if you could get lower than that then it will be definitely a good deal with its decent performance; you may try your luck at some online stores.

 

Pros:

+ Gapless direct touch technology
+ Compatible with Intel/AMD sockets
+ Four 8mm heat-pipes
+ SWiF2-120P 120mm PWM fan
+ SecuFirm2 mounting kit
+ 5 years warranty

Cons:

- Heavy

 

Thanks to Coolink for providing this sample for us to review.

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