The arrival of AIO liquid refrigeration and the rise of custom have moved air sinks to a second step in terms of PC cooling systems. In recent years we have seen how several brands have tried to innovate in the sector, giving war to the AIOs, but not exceeding them in most cases. Corsair has resumed his pulse and wants to enter fully into this fight with his new Corsair A500 heatsink, a top-of-the-range heatsink that promises to be the new king. Will he get it?
This Corsair A500 is presented as the most radical option of the brand so far, and that is that qualities are not lacking, since it arrives with an immense size of 137mm x 169mm x 103mm that gives it a negligible weight of 1460 grams, almost a 1.5 kilogram of high performance heatsink.
Part of this term comes not only for this, but for the two Corsair ML120 fans with magnetic levitation and with devilish performance, since they will reach 2,400 RPM offering 75 CFM and 4.2 mmH2O static pressure.
Obviously we are facing fans prepared for radiators and heatsinks of this caliber, since they will have to go through an incredible aluminum body based on 4 copper heatpipes with 8 and 6 mm nickel coating respectively.
The compatibility of this Corsair A500 is almost total, only leaving out the sockets for Threadripper from the 1000 to 3000 series, since due to their large size they need specific heatsinks.
As a good premium heatsink, Corsair offers up to 5 years warranty on this A500.
One of the strongest points of this Corsair A500 is its base. Although it does not have cold plate and the brand has opted for direct contact, as we see, it includes pre-applied thermal paste as standard and on a more than wide surface, thus reaching any IHS and achieving the best result without the user having to bother in pressure tests.
The four heatpipes available to them are not equal, since the two centrals are about 8 mm spectacular, while the two outer ones are 6 mm. The design and rotation of all is symmetrical, which allows you to install the heatsink to one side or the other.
Finally in this section we have the connections of the fans, both PWM as expected in a heatsink of this quality and finishes.
As you can see, maintaining a constant and permanent temperature of 20 ° C, the difference in idle between the two mounts barely exceeds half the degree, which indicates that the heatsink is enough even if it does not touch enough to keep our i7-8700K at bay.
Starting with the overall quality, we are undoubtedly facing a product that distills a great manufacturing in all the pieces, but that would have been round if the frames had finally been aluminum as its central cover.
The fans are ML120 with magnetic levitation and reach from 385 RPM to more than 2,400 RPM, so the range is very wide. Obviously at maximum revolutions it is very noisy, but as a rule it will not reach such a range since the heatsink does an incredible job.
With this A500 Corsair demonstrates that the double tower system does not have to be a standard to use to achieve the best results, something that the Thermalright Le Grand Macho confirmed for a long time, for example, also with a single fan.