Coolink ChipChilla Chipset Cooler Review

Fan Design

The fan that comes with this unit is a bit of an enigma since it has been sanitized so if it did fall into the wrong hands it wouldn't be able to give any clues to where it originated from! This of course is being overly dramatic for the sake of making the point that it is bare of any adornments, stamps or any manufacturing stamps. What is known about the fan is that it is a 11 bladed 60x60x10mm fan which is rated for 2200rpm and is extremely quiet.

The fan exhibited very little shaft “slop” or forwards and backwards motion to the fan blade assembly and felt very tight. However the fan displayed significant amount of angular slop when pushed/tapped on only one side of the fan. This combination leads us to believe that this fan is a sleeved bearing fan. This impression is backed up by how quiet it is when in use. While yes this fan does not move much air, it really doesn't have to, to do its job.


On the positive side, the fan cable is nice and long and is completely sleeved in nylon like black material. It is always nice when the manufacturers take the time to do this as it does make for a both a cleaner/neater install while also helping to keep air flow restrictions to a minimum.

Rather that rely on MTBF numbers, an easier and better way to get a “feel” for what the manufacturer thinks is the real length of time a product should last is to simply look at the length of warranty provided. The length of warranty has been calculated to be long enough so that customers feel secure in purchasing it BUT still short enough that it will be “out of warranty” when most fail. Taken for what its worth, (and is common Coolink practice) the ChipChilla comes with a 3 year warranty.


The fan itself mounts to the heatsink in a fairly unique take on the standard wire mounts. Yes the fan is held to the heatsink via two wires that sit into a track along each side of the heatsink, this is normal and nothing out of the ordinary. What is unique is that instead of mounting two rubber strips to the heatsink the anti-vibration material is actually on the fan. Each corner of the fan has the metal screw covered with a rubber bumper. The upside to this arrangement is that if you decide to remount the fan on the opposite side of the heatsink you don't have to worry about peeling over the vibration strips and hoping enough glue comes with them, since the rubber bumpers are stuck to the fan and not the heatsink! The downside to this arrangement is that the fan is not mounted tightly to the heatsink and there is no air seal around the fan. In a nutshell this means swapping the fan orientation is very easy, but does come at a very high price: namely a lot of air will escape before it is pushed through the heatsink. One thing is for sure this does make for an extremely quiet if highly inefficient setup.

Overall the fan is quiet, efficient and more than adequate for the task it has been given. What more could you ask from a unit that comes free with a chipset cooler that costs less than twenty dollars?