TK LAB / ABOUT THE PROJECT
This project began with one very specific constraint: the NFC Skyreach 5 MINI allows only 66mm of CPU-cooler height. Existing rankings could not explain the differences between fans, heatsinks, sustained cooling, and in-case heat soak, so I started testing the combinations myself.
The answer quickly outgrew a ranking. Four heatpipes can catch six; the faster fan is not always the more effective one; and an open-bench winner can be reordered inside the S5M by turbulence, recirculation, and whole-system heat soak. With every new run, the conditions and reasons became as important as the score.
TK Lab is an appointment-based independent hardware studio, reseller, and technology-media brand based mainly in Tainan, with an additional presence in Taichung. Its work spans custom PCs, workstations, diagnostics, components, and specialist hardware integration, while its media covers SFF systems, eGPU, servers, NAS, and hands-on hardware research.
Founder TK runs a game company as his main profession. TK Lab is the serious side business and passion project built alongside it. This low-profile cooling database is one example of how a practical hardware need becomes a documented, tested, and publicly shared TK Lab project.
HOW THE DATABASE WORKS
R23, AIDA64, acoustics, open-bench, and S5M in-case data stay separated instead of being mixed into one ranking.
Unmeasured fields are never filled with estimates. Analyses appear only when enough comparable records exist.
Separate physical samples retain their Unit IDs, so sample variance is not mistaken for a fan or heatsink difference.
Every test, product, and article has a stable URL. Original TK Lab work is CC BY 4.0 and may be shared or extended with attribution.
If you spot an error, have information about a rare model, or want to suggest a useful test combination, write to me directly.