Specifications

Fans	50x50x10mm Ball Bearing  x2
Voltage	12V DC
Fan Speed	5200 RPM
Air Flow	12.5 CFM
Noise Level	33.0 dBA
Fan MTBF	50,000 Hours
Fan Connector	3 Pin
Dimensions	137x58x44.6
Thermal Resistance	0.75% C/W
Heatsink Material	Anodized aluminum

What makes a good cooler?

The job of the heatsink is to draw heat from the processor, and radiate it to the surrounding air. That means that bigger heatsinks are better, right? Size is good, but a big solid block of metal won't be an efficient heatsink. Good heatsinks must have a lot of surface area in order to be able to radiate as much heat as possible. A solid metal block with 5 exposed sides only has a small amount of surface area to radiate heat. That's why heatsinks have fins, and some heatsinks like the Alpha have an insane number of very thin fins. Most fins are crosscut to allow air to flow along both the x and the y axis.

Side

Top

The Vantec heatsink has 9 fins (11 if you count the outside edges). You can also see the crosscuts in the side view.

What kind of metal?

Most heatsinks are made out of aluminum. Other metals such as copper and silver would make better heatsinks, but aluminum is cheaper than silver and easier to work with than copper. The Vantec heatsink is anodized aluminum. The anodizing aluminum improves the heatsink's heat transfer abilities.

You need a fan too.

A heatsink with a large number of fins is good, but you'll also need a fan to circulate the air. A heatsink can only radiate so much heat when the surrounding air is already hot. You need a fan to circulate air through the fins.

The Vantec cooler has two 50 x 50 x 10mm ball bearing fans. These 5200RPM bad boys can move 12.5 cubic feet of air per minute (CFM).