The KA-9225:

Features:

• Intel: Celeron D~2.93 GHz (340J), Core Duo 2.33 GHz (775 Dual-Core), Pentium 4 3.73 GHz (775 Prescott), Pentium EE 3.73 GHz (775 Dual-Core ), Pentium D 3.4 GHz (775 Dual-Core).

• AMD: Athlon 64 ~ 4800+ (K8), 64 FX-51 (K8), 64 FX-53 (K8), 64 FX-55 (K8), 64 FX-57 (K8), 64 FX-60 (K8), Opteron 2.6 (K8), Sempron 3300+ (K8).

• Special 4 copper heat pipes thermal cooling technology.

• Easy installation by specially design clip.

• Copper base.

• 90 x 90 x 25 mm blue LED ball bearing fan.

Specifications:

The front of the KA-9225 is dominated by a clear 90 mm fan that is lit by 4 blue LED lights.

     From the back you can see the copper heat pipes transfer heat to a tower of aluminum fins.  This heat is then cooled by the front fan.  This tower style of heat sink is also popular as a passive setup when the CPU heat is not as much of a factor, such as a HTPC build.

     The fan is held to the heatsink by a simple clip mechanism.  In this picture you can see the four mounting holes used to attach the mounting hardware.  The contact surface is polished copper and some slight unevenness left over from the polishing process that can be felt to the touch.  Nothing to write home about but I am willing to bet these would benefit from a good lapping.

Installation:

     All of the new Kingwin heatsinks are installed the same way.  The motherboard is removed and the OEM mounting bracket and back plate are removed.  With the correct hardware attached to the heatsink, the unit is attached using the supplied screws from the back of the motherboard, as shown here on the KA-9228.  Padded spacers are also provided to keep the heatsink and mounting from contacting the motherboard directly.  Don't forget your thermal compound!

     Installation of the KA-9225 was simple.  On both of the towers setups the size of the heatsink dwarfs the mounting but the heatsink is held firmly in place.

     With the install complete the heatsink is not quite tall enough to clear the memory on the DFI motherboard.  This clearance could also effect motherboards with capacitors or other parts close to the CPU socket.

The KA-9225 looks nice with the lights down.  The LED setup is quite bright!

Testing:

      First we will start with the test system running at the stock speeds.  The highest temperature hit for the CPU is 47C, the PWM is 57C, and the chipset is 41C.

      Next we loaded up our top overclocking profile achieved on the XP-90 setup and started up our tests.  The highest temperature hit for the CPU was 57C, the PWM was 72C, and the chipset was 43C.  Towards the final stage of our overclocking the Orthos test failed as seen in the drop off recorded above.  At first it may appear that the PWM temperatures escalated to the point of failure, but DFI rates their PWM temperatures good until 120 C.  Past history has shown this Opteron tends to fail at about 60C; since the CPU temperature matches our stock test the point of failure was most caused by the extreme speed of the ramp up.  To be sure I ran the test a couple of times with near identical results.  Interesting.

KA-9225 Conclusion:

     Although the KA-9225 is an attractive example of how the popular tower style should look, this heatsink couldn't handle our torture test in the lab.  The KA-9225 is more than able to handle most performance builds and easily bests the OEM cooler.  The ability to upgrade the included 90 mm fan is a nice advantage as well.  With a price point at about $32 MSRP this heatsink is very competitive with other heatsinks we have tested in the past.  For those using the common motherboard included overclocking or looking for a mid-priced tower cooler the KA-9225 is a solid choice, enthusiasts will have to look elsewhere.

Innovation:	7.0 out of 10
Performance:	7.5 out of 10
Quality:	8.5 out of 10
Stability:	8.0 out of 10
Overclocking:	7.5 out of 10
Software/Drivers Pack:	N/A
Value:	7.5 out of 10
Overall Rating 7.5
Project Skill Level (10 being most difficult)	4 out of 10