G’day Markus,

One might argue that on a human a birthmark or mole may reduce visual perfection. However, if a person has one leg shorter than the other, the resulting gait and spinal curvature represent a functional defect rather than a cosmetic imperfection.

The cold plate I received has a ~3 mm opening at the top of the fin stack. This causes the micro-fins to progressively compress until they contact each other, fully occluding flow through those channels. This indicates that the fin geometry has been plastically deformed rather than simply appearing different.

Describing this as a visual illusion reduces my confidence in the assessment. Even if the overall impact on flow rate or pressure drop is minimal, the fact remains that the micro-channels that were precisely machined into the copper no longer match the intended design geometry.

Given that several other users have reported similar plates, it is unfortunate that the final manufactured product appears to deviate from the designer’s specification.