Raijintek Adios, Themis and Ereboss CPU Cooler Review

1. Introduction2. Packaging and Bundle3. Raijintek Adios 92mm CPU Cooler4. Raijintek Thermis 120mm CPU Cooler5. Raijintek Ereboss 140mm CPU Cooler6. Installation7. Testing Methodology8. Thermal Performance9. Acoustic Performance10. Closing Thoughts11. View All Pages

Today we are going to look at a complete range of CPU coolers which have just been released by a new brand to the market – Raijintek. They are designed to offer excellent performance and efficiency at a reasonable price, and are targeted at avid PC users looking to get a good cooler without breaking the bank.

You would be forgiven for not having heard of Raijintek before, however they claim that you will be hearing a lot more about them in the future.  The company has been founded by some former employees of Cooler Master and Xigmatek, meaning the Raijintek team have a great deal of knowledge and experience in the cooling market.

The Raijintek range has been picked up exclusively by Overclockers in the UK who are making the coolers available to their massive customer base. We look forward to seeing how they perform in our tests as it isn't often we get the chance to test new products from an ‘unknown' brand with such a rich management history.

We will go into detail about the features and specifications of each cooler on the pages we have dedicated to them later on in the review.

All three coolers are supplied in very similar packaging which feature a common red and grey livery. On the front of each box, there is a large image of the relevant cooler, and more information about the coolers is available on the sides and rear.

Inside the box, the only accessories we find are those required for installation. The bundle is standard across these three coolers as they all use the same mounting mechanism. The only item which is worth noting is the included thermal paste which is supplied rather inconveniently in a sachet. This will make it much more difficult to apply than thermal paste from a syringe.

Raijintek Adios 92mm CPU Cooler

Features

• Non-Copper base design (C.D.C. – CPU Direct Contact)
• Patented pressing heat-pipe / fin technology to prevent heat-pipe damage risk
• Patented Solder-less louver fin assembly for heat-pipe ventilation increased
• Less Junk pollution, an exclusive green environmental protection cooler
• Compatible with all modern sockets of INTEL& AMD at market
• Anti-Vibration rubbers used to minimize vibration
• Point of view of budget price
• Easy installation and user friendly

Specification

• Dimension: 95(W) x 55(D) x 136(H) mm
• Base Material: CPU Direct Contact (C.D.C.)
• Fin Material: Aluminum Alloy; Solder-less fins assembly
• Heat-pipe: ƒ³6mm
• Fan Dimension: 92(W) x 92(H) x 25(D) mm
• Voltage Rating: 12V
• Starting Voltage: 7V
• Speed: 1000 ~ 2400 R.P.M.
• Bearing Type: Sleeve Bearing
• Air Flow: 53.02 CFM (Max.)
• Air Pressure: 4.2 mmH2O (Max.)
• Life Expectance: 40,000 hrs
• Noise Level: 29.8 dBA (Max.)
• Connector: 4 pin with PWM

The Aidos is the most compact cooler in Raijinitek’s range and is designed to operate in environments where there isn't a large amount of clearance around the CPU socket.

Raijintek has opted for a fairly standard tower design for this cooler, with a single fan blowing over the fins. It’s clear they haven’t concentrated on the aesthetic design of the cooler as the copper heatpipes aren’t nickel-plated to match the aluminium fins.

With diameters of six millimeters each, the four U-shaped heatpipes should be able to transfer a good deal of heat. Raijintek have opted for a direct contact design, meaning the heatpipes themselves physically come into contact with the CPU in the block.

The included fan is a 92 mm Raijintek branded model which has a fairly unique red and white colour scheme. This features a red housing with white blades. This wouldn’t be our first choice of colour scheme as the white and red doesn’t match many other components on the market.

The fan itself spins up to 2,400 RPM but is PWM controlled so will spin as low as 1000 RPM providing the CPU isn't under significant load. It connects to the motherboard using a standard 4-pin fan header.

Raijintek Thermis

Key Features

• Non-Copper base design (C.D.C. – CPU Direct Contact)
• Patented pressing heat-pipe / fin technology to prevent heat-pipe damage risk
• Patented Solder-less louver fin assembly for heat-pipe ventilation increased
• Compatible with all modern sockets of INTEL& AMD
• Anti-Vibration rubbers used to minimize vibration
• Large dissipating area & Elegant design

Specification

• Dimension: 122(W) x 50(D) x 157(H) mm
• Base Material: CPU Direct Contact (C.D.C.)
• Fin Material: Aluminum Alloy; Solder-less fins assembly
• Heat-pipe: ƒ³8mm
• Fan Dimension: 120(W) x 120(H) x 25(D) mm
• Voltage Rating: 12V
• Starting Voltage: 7V
• Speed: 1000 ~ 1800 R.P.M.
• Bearing Type: Sleeve Bearing
• Air Flow: 78.82 CFM (Max.)
• Air Pressure: 3.22 mmH2O (Max.)
• Life Expectance: 40,000 hrs
• Noise Level: 27.86 dBA (Max.)
• Connector: 4 pin with PWM
• Weight: 448 g (Heat Sink Only)

The Thermis is the next step up in terms of size in Rajintek’s range and is designed for those users who are looking for a bit more cooling performance for their system.

Like the Aidos, the Thermis features a tower design with an all-aluminium heatsink arranged across the heatpipes. Again, Raijintek haven’t done anything to enhance the aesthetics of the heatsink itself, leaving the copper heatpipes exposed.

At 8 mm, the Thermis features slightly larger heatpipes than the Aidos, however there are only three, meaning there isn’t likely to be a great deal of difference in heat transfer. These also feature a direct-contact design, meaning the heatpipes themselves directly touch the CPU when installed.

The Thermis features a 120 mm Raijintek branded fan which fixes to one side of the cooler. This is also PWM controlled and is free to spin between 1000 RPM and 1800 RPM depending on the CPU temperature.  This fan is also red and white coloured, meaning it could be quite difficult to find other components that colour co-ordinate.

Raijintek Ereboss

Key Features

• Nickel copper base, efficient 6mm Heat-pipe*6 & ultra large dissipating area fin
• Super Slim type 14013 PWM fan – 13mm height; Low noise & outstanding air flow as well pressure
• Multiple mounting kits for a wide range of sockets
• Patent designed holes on fins to provide excellent air flow and cooling efficiency
• Dual fans installation option and anti-vibration rubber attached.

Specification

• Dimension: 140(W) x 110.5(D) x 160(H) mm
• Base Material: Nickel Copper
• Fin Material: Aluminum Alloy; Solder-free fins assembly
• Heat-pipe:6pcs.
• Fan Dimension: 140(W) x 150(H) x 13(D) mm
• Voltage Rating 12V
• Starting Voltage 7V
• Speed: 1100 ~ 1650 R.P.M.
• Bearing Type: Sleeve Bearing
• Air Flow: 66.65 CFM (Max.)
• Air Pressure: 1.72 mmH2O (Max.)

The Ereboss is Raijintek’s flagship model at present and is designed to offer great cooling performance. It is significantly larger than the Thermis and is aimed squarely at those users who are looking to achieve a significant overclock with their system.

Like the other two models in the range, the Ereboss features a tower design. Again, the aluminium heatsink is arranged around the heatpipes, although the Ereboss boasts six of them rather than three.

The six 6 mm heatpipes should theoretically provide twice the area to dissipate heat than the three in the Aidos. These aren't direct touch heatpipes, though, as the CPU block encases them and is entirely nickel-plated.  Despite being a single tower design, the Ereboss boasts a massive surface area for heat dissipation as the individual aluminium fins are very large indeed.

Raijinitek have made a rather unusual choice with the fan they have included with the Ereboss. While the 140 mm aspect of this particular fan is fairly standard, it’s only 13 mm thick. This makes it around half the thickness of a standard 140 mm fan. It remains to be seen whether this will affect performance at all.

The fan itself is red and white in colour, similar to those featured on the other two models. It is PWM controlled and is able to spin between 1100 RPM and 1650 RPM. Like the other two fans, it features a 4-pin PWM connector. We would have liked to see Raijinitek including two fans with this cooler as it’s positioned as a high-end model.

All three of the Raijintek coolers being tested today use the same mounting bracket and, as a result, the installation process is pretty much identical.  We will be documenting the installation process on a Intel Socket 2011 motherboard.  There is detailed installation literature included which guides us through the process.

Firstly, we are instructed to screw the plugs into the standard retention points in the 2011 socket.

Then, we can position two retention bars over these and secure them using thumbscrews.

Next, the thermal paste can be applied before placing the cooler on top and securing it down with the cross brace and screws provided.

Finally, the fans can be attached using the supplied rubber plugs.  We are impressed with the mounting system as it makes installation simple.

It's a little more fiddly with the Ereboss than the other two coolers as it's more difficult to access the screw holes on the cross brace due to the size. The only slight improvement we would suggest would be to include pre-attached spring screws on the cross brace as it would simplify this part of the installation.

To test the performance of the Raijintek Adios, Thermis and Ereboss, we built a powerful X79 based system on an open test bench to push the cooler to it’s limits.  As we were testing on an open test bench, we directed a Be Quiet! Shadow Wings 120 mm fan at the VRM circuitry to better simulate the airflow generated in a case.

Overclocking

We manually overclocked the i7-3930K to 4.3 GHz by increasing the multiplier to 43x, leaving the baseclock set at 100 MHz.  We set Load Line Calibration to ‘High’, and increased the CPU Current Capability to 130% with a minor voltage increase to 1.35V.

For our temperature tests we loaded the system for 10 minutes using Prime 95 and recorded the CPU temperature using CPUID HWMonitor. We then restarted the system and left it idling at the desktop for 10 minutes. The temperatures recorded are based on an ambient temperature of 25 degrees C.

As you can see from the results above, all three coolers performed well in these tests.  In the overclocked tests they all fell around 5-10 degrees behind the NH-D14 which isn't too shabby for coolers that cost a fraction of the price.  Things were much closer in the stock test where the NH-D14 only managed to outperform the Ereboss by the tightest of margins.

In our noise level tests we switched off all the case fans and replaced the AMD Radeon HD 7950 graphics card with a HD 5550 passive model so we are just taking into account the noise generated by the cooler fans themselves.

We measured the noise level with a Digital Noise Level meter at a distance of 1 m from the front of the system.

In this test we set the fans at maximum speed as, under PWM mode, all three Raijintek models registered below the 30 dBA minimum sensitivity of our noise level meter.  These results should be taken as a ‘worst case' scenario.  The performance of the Raijintek coolers was pretty good, even at these speeds!  The Noctua NH-D14 has fixed speed fans which remained under 30 dBA for the duration of our tests.

The Raijintek coolers are certainly making a strong first impression. It's clear the company are targeting those users who want a bang-for-buck deal, as they offer decent performance at competitive price points.

Raijintek seem to have positioned their range to take on the likes of Cooler Master and Xigmatek directly.  The top end model, the Ereboss utilizes a single tower design, rather than a more costly dual-tower configuration, showing that they aren't gunning for the top-end of the market.  This is probably a good thing, as the high-end market is becoming increasingly crowded.

We have pushed these coolers to their limits by testing them with the hot running high end Core i7 3930k processor.  We still managed to achieve a decent overclock with all three models and they weren't that loud either, which is a bonus.

Our only minor gripe with this range of coolers is the colour scheme that Raijintek have opted for.  Red and white doesn't really match any other components on the market and therefore wouldn't be our first choice. Perhaps our readers have a different take on this however. We would love to hear your views.

The three coolers are available for pre-order at Overclockers UK over here.  The Adios is priced at £15, the Thermis at £22 and the Ereboss at £32.  We feel that these prices make all three coolers excellent value for money, especially the Adios which is a steal at £15.  We would highly recommend the whole range, but the Adios in particular as it's ideal for those looking to build a powerful system in a compact case.

Pros

• All three coolers offer great value for money.
• PWM fans included.
• Managed to cool our overclocked 3930K without issue.

Cons

• Unusual colour scheme.

Kitguru says: An impressive first attempt for Raijintek.  We look forward to seeing what they come out with next!

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