For those of you with front mount air to air intercoolers...

How important is brand when it comes to an intercooler?

i dont want to cheap out on parts, but i am having trouble seeing how anything other than dimensions affect how an intercooler functions.

i see the name brand ic's going for 300-400 and the no names going for 100...

is there a reason to pay the extra money that i dont see?

i bought a cheap one. It's not installed yet mind you, but it's quite nicely done via E-bay.

from what i noticed, the cheap ones are made of very thin gauge aluminum and sometimes have issues with the end tanks getting crushed if you tighten your clamps too hard. they even epoxy some of the end tanks to the core with some of them! my spearco is worlds apart in quality from the cheap-o IC's that ive seen.

other then that, im sure you can find a good one for 1-200$. you just have to shop around and compare.

so mainly quality issues? not enough difference in pressure drop or heat dissipation to worry about?