July 28th, 2010 at 1:10 pm - Author
IronLaw
High performance coolers are much loved by the KitGuru audience and today we are going to review a cooler from Spire, a European manufacturer. This is a product we believe our readers will find rather intriguing. After all, the company claims that “this towering cooler is built to deliver the best thermal performance – guaranteed”!
Claiming that your product can guarantee the ‘best’ thermal performance is a very bold marketing claim, especially when the MSRP is €38.95, around half the price of massive class leading air coolers such as the Noctua NH-D14. Spire named this cooler the TherMax Eclipse II, successor to their first DT (direct touch) cooler, the TherMax. In this review we will thoroughly examine the cooler and test its overall performance, which hopefully will be in par with Spire’s claims of greatness.
Manufacturer features and specifications
- Five (5) 8mm all copper U-shaped direct touch heat-pipes
- Straight lined heat-pipes allowing air to easily pass through
- 46 stamped aluminum wide fins for best surface rate
- Dimpled surface fin for increased heat transfer rate
- Black-Nickel coated heat-sink to preserve killer looks from oxidation
- Two (2) 120mm BlackStar 9 blade fan design
- High Quality, Long MTBF Japanese No.1 Ball bearing
- Anti-Vibe universal rubber fan mountings (crews)
- Supports AM2/AM3 socket 939/940/ 775/1156 & 1366 incl. Intel Core i7 Extreme 130W
| Dimensions |
| Heat sink : |
131×70×152 mm (l × w × h) |
| 12VDC Fan : |
120×120×25 mm |
|
| Material |
Alu fin + CU heat-pipe DT base |
| Heatpipe |
Five (5) 8mm all copper U-shaped direct touch |
| Bearing |
Ball bearing |
| Rated speed |
| Cooler : |
2200 RPM +/-10% |
| Only Fan : |
2200 RPM +/-10% |
|
| Rated power |
4.2 W |
| Rated Voltage |
12 V |
| Noise level |
29.0 dBA |
| Air flow |
93.3 CFM |
| Current |
0.35 A |
| Connector |
3 Pin |
| TDP |
150 W |
| Thermal resistance |
0.091 oC/W |
| Thermal Grease |
BlueFrost – SP802 blue grease(Injection Tube,0.5g) |
| Static Pressure |
3.35 mmH2O |
| MTBF |
50000H |
| Application |
| Intel : |
Celeron D ~ 2.93 GHz (340J) |
| Intel : |
Core 2 Duo ~ 3.33 GHz (775 Dual-core) |
| Intel : |
Core 2 Extreme ~ 3.2 GHz (775 Dual-core) |
|
Core 2 Quad ~ 3 GHz (775 Quad-core) |
|
Core i3 ~ 3.06 GHz 1156 |
|
Core i5 ~ 2.66 GHz 1156 |
|
Core i7 ~ 3.2 GHz 1366 |
|
LGA775 ~ 3.93 GHz (Prescott) |
|
Pentium D ~ 3.4 GHz (775 Dual-Core) |
|
Pentium EE ~ 3.93 GHz (775 Dual-Core) |
| AMD : |
Athlon 64 FX-74 (K8) |
|
Athlon II (AM3) |
|
Athlon X2 (AM2/AM2+) |
|
Phenom ~ 9950 GHz (AM2/AM2+) |
|
Phenom II ~ 9600 GHz (AM2/AM3) |
|
Phenom II ~ 8500 GHz (AM2/AM3) |
|
| Operating Temperature |
30~70 oC |
| Storage Temperature |
-10~40 oC |
| Warranty |
5 years |
| Packaging type |
Color Box |
| Package includes |
FAN / Clip 1 set / SP-802 grease / Manual |
| N.W |
0.822 KG |
| G.W |
1.3 KG |
| Life hours |
Ball: 50.000 |
VN:R_U [1.9.3_1094]
Rating: 5.0/5 (1 vote cast)
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July 28, 2010
#1
ill pass, that cooler sounds awful for noise. why no dB ratings in this reviwe, they are useful
July 28, 2010
#2
Disappointed a little with this review, the testing is good until we get to the noise. I am told by the reviewer that it is loud but ive nothing to compare it against. I would like to know just how loud the fans are in a dB rating, especially as the new kitguru system is without a doubt the best on the net for noise measurements.
July 28, 2010
#3
Not impressed with the cooler, its a brute force solution, decent looking cooler but putting on two high spinning fans seems such the wrong way to do it. Shame about noise levels but im guessing high 40dbs/low 50dbs
July 28, 2010
#4
Hello, sorry about lack of DBa measurements, our dedicated room is in a specific location and our specialist equipment is also not in a location that ironlaw can get to.
July 28, 2010
#5
Hard to know if id be able to use it, but if its painfully loud then id pass. the thermaltake contac 29 is cheaper and very quiet for instance.
July 28, 2010
#6
Why dont they sell a version for less money without the fans and let users add their own high quality solutions?
July 28, 2010
#7
Our IT guy in work has this on a test bed as he is constantly bringing in things for home and making sure he has time to play with the latest stuff.
Id say on hearing it, it must be at least 50db. its quite bad.
July 28, 2010
#8
Its a competitive market, they dropped the ball with the noise aspect. No need for that anymore, maybe 10 years ago sure. we have too many good low noise, high performance coolers in 2010.
July 28, 2010
#9
50db? lol, come on Spire, lets get with the plan
July 28, 2010
#10
so around £30, you get two fans most people wont be happy with, then have to buy two more, which is another £12. best just getting the corsair A70 or thermaltake frio
July 28, 2010
#11
noise doens’t bother me, performance is what i need
July 28, 2010
#12
Hi, Vivianne from Spire here. 1. Would it be better if we’d include a PWM and PCI fan speed control unit? 2. Or would you rather have low speed fans? 3. Or would you prefer purchasing your own fans?
July 28, 2010
#13
Hi Vivianne. I am all for performance cooling, and I can deal with a limited amount of noise, but I think you should maybe sell two versions.
Version 1: the heatsink and a controller with the two fans. even charge £2 more to compensate for the controller, so we can vary the speeds. Its a little like the Thermaltake Frio. have you heard it on full? I think kitguru reviewed it and it rated at 60DB? they used their heads and offered a controller so you could fine tune the noise and cooling yourself.
Version 2: Just sell the heatsink as it looks quite good, then users can add their own fan(s).
July 28, 2010
#14
I would be happy with a low and high speed settings, two decent 120mm fans on low can generally cool anything, even overclocked CPUS. the heatsink looks good.
July 28, 2010
#15
Vivianne its a tough call really. if you dont sell it with a fan or two then people will complain they need to spend more, even if you drop the price.
What I think is the best option is to either sell it with one fan with a variable controller. If you lose the second fan, im sure the price could be kept the same. then people can add another fan later.
If this is not what you want another option would be to sell it with two fans with low and high settings , and charge a little more.
July 28, 2010
#16
The cooler looks good, and the fans are decent looking units, but in 2010 people want some kind of control, especially if the default is LOUD!. Id be interested in this cooler, but its not an option for me with the noise being described as loud. There are so many coolers out now with reasonable cooling and not much noise.
July 28, 2010
#17
Id go with the current version, add a controller to each fan, like FRIO has. call it the DELUXE model. Then offer the heatsink on its own to people who already have fans at home, and charge less. I think you would get a lot of sales from both.
July 28, 2010
#18
Its a good review, but without DB ratings and the reviewer saying its LOUD, its very hard to judge.
I would however immediately advise SPIRE to offer a controller knob for each fan, even if it costs more to the end user. people LOVE control over fan noise. this means hardcore overclockers like SVEN can crank it when gaming, and can easily lower the fan speed later when watching a movie for instance.
Forcing people today to have just a LOUD setting, is not going to work to get sales.
Incidetnally great review Kitguru, ill hold off buying one of these until the fans get sorted, and its nice to see SPIRE on the thread discussions and wanting advise. thats good customer relations.
July 28, 2010
#19
Hello Vivanne. I don’t know costs to you as a company, but I would suggest you spend more on the fans and even if it raises the price a little charge more. or offer a top quality fan with controller instead of two fans without. that sounds like it would balance out and you could maintain the current pricing?
July 28, 2010
#20
Great review KitGuru, just got home for my KG fix
Good honest review Ironlaw, I like the testing and the honesty with the readers. Also im very impressed to see SPIRE asking us for our views.
I think it has already been said, I overclock like hell, and I do it on water, but ive owned loud heatsink/fan combos before, its why I moved to water ! offer a low setting at least, then people who are overclocking but who aren’t going mad can still get a good performance to noise ratio. lack of controls isnt good.