X-bit labs

Roundup: Four Spire Coolers vs. Four Overclocked Kentsfield Cores in Summer Heat (page 3)

Category: Coolers

by Sergey Lepilov

[ 06/29/2007 | 10:04 PM ]

VertiCool IV (SP608B3-C)

The cardboard boxes of the three other coolers from Spire are designed identically and have robust plastic cases inside:

This section is about VertiCool IV. Besides a large cardboard box, the cooler is packed into a transparent blister pack.

The travel and time have frayed the packaging which doesn’t look tidy anymore. The cooler is firmly fixed in a separate compartment inside the box. Its accessories are underneath it:

• Fan speed controller designed as a PCI bracket
• Syringe with 0.5 grams of Stars-420 thermal grease
• Two metal fasteners to mount the cooler on Socket 754/939/940 mainboards
• Four small screws to secure the fasteners on the cooler
• Universal back-plate and four screws
• Two clips to install the cooler on Socket AM2 mainboards
• Two fasteners to install the cooler on LGA775 mainboards
• Back-plate for Socket 754/939/940
• Guide on installing the cooler on every supported platform

The two Spire coolers I’ll discuss in the next section come with this set of accessories, too (except that the Fourier III model lacks a speed controller). The Starts-420 thermal grease is very efficient according to our tests. Its stabilization period is 7 days, by the way.

Here it is, Spire VertiCool IV:

The tower-like design of this 71x98x123mm cooler is nothing new overall, yet it features a few interesting solutions. It’s clear even from its photo that the cooler is all made from copper, except for the fan. The manufacturer does not declare the weight and I didn’t have a balance at hand to measure it myself, but the cooler feels rather heavy.

A number of thin copper plates are put on the four copper heat pipes with a diameter of about 5.5 millimeters.