With new and updated versions of popular air coolers being released, you do start to see older options lowering in price or being available with a large discount. The Alpenföhn Brocken 3 is a perfect case in point – despite launching last year, it is currently available for £42.95 and boasts 100% RAM compatibility, as well as low noise levels. On the surface, it seems like a pretty good deal if you are looking for a new cooler today.
With older coolers comes the potential for newer socket incompatibility, or lack of support for more power hungry CPUs so a recent option may be the safer bet, but testing will show whether the Alpenföhn Brocken 3 is a bargain or just a little bit dated.
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Specification:
- Model: Brocken 3
- Heat Sink Material: 5 Heat Pipes / Aluminum Fins
- Fan Dimensions: 140 x 140 x 25 mm
- Fan Speed: 400 – 1050 RPM (PWM)
- Fan Air Flow: 60.62 CFM
- Fan Noise Level: 22 dBA
- Fan Connector: 4-Pin (PWM)
- Intel socket compatibility: Intel LGA 2011, 2011-v3, 1151, 1155, 1156, 1150, 1366, 775
- AMD socket compatibility: AMD AM4 AM3+, AM3, AM2+, AM2, FM1
- Heat Sink Weight: 850g (inc fan)
- Heat Sink Dimensions (LxWxH) : 146 x 125 x 165 mm
The Brocken 3 ships in a black box, with the front featuring a large image of the cooler and some key details such as fan information, and the 100% RAM clearance compatibility. The rear of the box provides much more detailed specs, socket compatibility, and information for the included Wing Boost 3 140mm fan.
Opening up the box you are first greeted with an installation guide and instructions, and a long Alpenföhn screwdriver which will be required for installation. Mounting hardware is supplied for most current Intel and AMD mounts, and in terms of accessories alongside the included screwdriver you also receive thermal compound and four fan clips.
Taking a look at the cooler itself, to me it almost has a kind of classic car or hotrod aesthetic. The asymmetric design definitely feels a little quirky and gives you an impression of speed. The cooler also features a brushed aluminium top plate, with a sort of pearlescent paint finish. In some light, it came across a little blue, and in others a little more pinky purple. It’s a very subtle finish which was actually really hard to capture on camera.
The included Wing Boost 3 fan feels solid and features four rubber anti-vibration sections pre-installed, with the PWM cable is also sleeved. The cable also features a Y splitter at the end which is also a really nice addition, allowing you to connect a second fan to the same motherboard 4 pin connection.
The asymmetric design is pretty intriguing when it comes to how the cooler will mount. As with most coolers, this starts with the backplate. Setting this up is pretty easy, the side of the backplate that touches your motherboard is dependent on whether you are mounting for Intel or AMD, but once you have it oriented correctly, you just need to pass four long screws through the backplate, and secure them with the four included plastic clips.
As we now test using a Z170 motherboard socket LGA1151, the installation process below reflects this.
The back plate can then be fitted to the rear of your motherboard, with the longer screws passing through the mounting holes. Four plastic spacers can then be fitted atop the mounting screws, and there are a couple of rails which then need to be placed atop these pillars. Four screws can then secure the rails in place.
The cooler has a mounting plate pre-fitted to the CPU block, so with the bracket mounted, you just need to add some thermal compound and place the cooler over your CPU.
The included long screwdriver then comes into play, there is a small pass-through running down the cooler for you to access the more central screw which is nice and convenient, and the second mounting screw easily accessible at the “front” of the cooler. With the cooler firmly mounted, you just need to add the fan to the front with the included clips and plug the 4 pin PWM connector into your motherboard CPU fan header.
There are quite a few stages to the process so it is definitely worth consulting the install guide, but overall a pretty simple process. The asymmetric design also makes total sense with the cooler installed, you have no issues whatsoever with RAM clearance, with the fan installed you still have quite a bit of space before it would come into contact with your memory modules.
To test all CPU coolers, we devised an easily repeatable test with no variables other than the coolers themselves. This ensures that figures from every cooler we test are comparable with each other.
Test rig
At KitGuru we have recently updated our testing setup, and now test temperatures on the Z170 platform. For the CPU we are testing with the Intel Core i7-7700K installed in a ASUS Z170 Pro Gaming motherboard. For RAM we have a single 8GB stick of Geil EVO X RGB for some added bling running at 3200MHz, and storage is handled by a 120GB SanDisk SSD Plus. Powering our bench is a Seasonic Prime Platinum 650W PSU.
The test process
For testing, we run a number of tests including 4 separate temperature readings per cooler. We first measure the idle temperature of the i7-7700K locked in at 4.0GHz before measuring its temperature under load at the same frequency.
For a representation of overclocks, we run the i7- 7700K at 4.5GHz with a 1.275 Vcore applied both at idle and load. The temperatures we present are temperature deltas, where the ambient temperature of the testing environment is deducted from the temperature taken from the CPU for both idle and load. We are aware that a 4.5GHz overclock with a 1.275 Vcore applied is not representative of the best setting possible for the i7-7700k, but this does allow us to simulate performance of coolers whether you are using a less powerful CPU such as an i3 or i5 processor, or a more powerful hotter CPU like our overclocked i7-7700k.
An idle reading comes from leaving Windows on the desktop for 15 minutes. A load reading comes from running Prime95’s (version 26.6) Small FFTs test for 15 minutes – enough time for temperatures to plateau. We use HWInfo64 v5.82 to measure temperatures.
Noise output
We measure noise levels with our sound meter positioned 1 foot away from the test bench. The peak noise level is presented. We have measured the noise floor (i.e. ambient noise levels of the room) to be 34 dBa, and when tested at stock clocks, the vast majority of coolers do not emit noise levels above this figure. Thus, we present one chart with noise levels taken during our overclocked CPU test run.
Temperatures
All temperature charts are sorted with lowest load temperatures at the top.
With our i7 7700k locked in at 4GHz, performance is ok, with the Alpenföhn Brocken 3 coming in just behind the Dark Rock Pro 4. Idle temps do show a bit more of a gap between the Brocken 3 and the Dark Rock Pro 4, though, with the Brocken performing a little closer to some other air coolers like the Cooler Master MA410P and MA410M.
At 4.5 GHz, results are very similar in terms of where the Brocken 3 ranks across the coolers we have tested, still sitting close to both the Cooler master MA410P and MA410M. Both load and idle temperatures are generally fine, although certainly not the best we have seen so far.
Countering these slightly higher temps, however, is audible noise. Taking a look at our noise levels under load really shows the Alpenföhn Brocken 3's strengths as it is the second quietest cooler tested, coming in just behind the Dark Rock Pro 4, and only just missing out on the top spot. This basically is a bit of a trade-off, as in testing the Brocken 3 didn’t necessarily provide the best cooling performance but it was consistently one of the quietest coolers tested.
The Wing Boost 3 fans are basically tuned for low noise, however, as its speed ranges from 400 to 1050rpm, so even at max speed it not super fast when compared to something like the ML120 Pro fans included with the Corsair H100i RGB Platinum which max out at 2400rpm.
Overall, the Alpenföhn Brocken 3 is actually a pretty interesting piece of kit, for a couple of different reasons. For starters, it’s pretty unique in its appearance as it features this asymmetric design. This does make quite a bit of sense, saving you from the trouble of worrying about RAM clearance, while it also moves the cooler a little closer to the rear of the case, which will likely help your rear case fan exhaust the hotter air straight from the cooler.
In terms of installation, this also helps make the process a little easier as really there’s only one slightly inaccessible mounting screw, and even then there is a pass-through hole running centrally down the cooler which is designed for use with the included screwdriver.
In testing, it also became apparent that although quite a large cooler, Alpenföhn has intended the Brocken 3 to offer quieter operation over performance. Temperatures didn’t strike me as being crazy hot, but it’s clear that the cooler runs a little hotter than some of its competitors. This being said, considering the significant reduction in audible noise, it seems like a pretty fair trade-off if you value silence.
So while it doesn't offer the best raw thermals performance, the low noise levels – bettered only by the pricier Dark Rock Pro 4 – do make this cooler worth buying if you value silence.
The Alpenföhn Brocken 3 is currently available from Overclockers UK for £42.95 inc. VAT HERE.
Pros
- The asymmetric design allows 100% RAM compatibility even with higher profile memory.
- Very quiet in operation, even when overclocking.
- Out of the box potential to add a second fan thanks to extra fan brackets and a 4 pin PWM splitter.
Cons
- Thermal performance isn't the best.
- The pearlescent top plate may not be to everyone's taste.
KitGuru says: It's by no means the best cooler we have ever tested if you are just interested in thermal performance, but the impressively low noise levels means the Brocken 3 will appeal if you want to build a quiet PC.
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