CoolerMaster Aero 7+

Reviews: Cooling

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Kurtis Kronk
Brian
Cooler Master
Jun. 17, 2003

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About the Aero 7+

(Info Courtesy of Cooler Master)

The Aero 7+ is unique in that it uses an entirely different type of fan than the leading competitors. Here is some information about how the Aero 7+ works, and what makes it unique.

The basics of CPU heat dissipation using an axial fan is that the air pressure & volume produced by the fan exchanges with heat from the heat sink. However, only the farthest side of the blade from the axle produces the most air pressure and volume, and most importantly, it is unable to blow towards the center of the heat sink, which of course, is the hottest part of the heat sink.

Differences Between Blower & Traditional Axial Fan

And that's why Aero series has been invented. This blower is quite different from others normally available on the market. It uses a different kind of motor, enabling the fan blades to push air directly into the center of the heat sink. Furthermore, blowers produce larger air pressure than traditional axial fans, thus they can preform extremely well even with lower speed settings.

Features

Blower

As explained above, the blower fan is superior to the traditional axial fan. The blower design not only makes the Aero 7+ outperform traditional CPU coolers such as the Volcano 11 (as you will see below), but it looks a lot cooler at the same time.

PCI Fan Speed Adjustment Bracket

Unlike some other CPU coolers with fan speed adjustment, the Aero 7+'s is not optional. There is no temperature sensor to automatically adjust fan speed, only a speed asjustment control. As you would expect a PCI bracket to, it fits perfectly into your case and mounting the knob to the bracket is quite easy.

3.5" Fan Speed Adjustment Mount

Unlike the PCI bracket, the 3.5" mount is flawed. CoolerMaster forgot to make the sides of this mount a bit longer to allow for mounting it into a case. I tested it in 4 different cases (Chieftech Dragon, Enermax CS-1018S, GMono, and Athenatech), and it did not mount properly in any of them. I told CoolerMaster about this problem and they told me they were aware of it and it is being worked on.

Improved Thumb Clip

I don't know what the original thumb clip was like on the Aero 7, but this one falls a little short. It is meant to make installing painless, but it fails. Like many others probably do, I install CPU coolers with the motherboard still mounted in the case. This may be dangerous, but it is my motherboard and I will do what I want! (Saves a lot of time). To install the Aero 7+ successfully, I had to take the fan off, which is quite simple, just unscrew and remove. With the fan off I could push the clip around the mounting brackets with a screwdriver within a few seconds. I can not be held responsible if you do it this way, I just found it easiest to install that way. The 'improved' thumb clip would have been much better if it still had the lug for pushing the clip on with a screwdriver. Enough talking, let's test this thing already!

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Page 1: First Looks & Manufacturer Notes
Page 2: About the Aero 7+ & Features
Page 3: Testing & Conclusion

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20 User Comments

1 - Posted by Kurtis on June 17, 2003 - 11:08 am

Me likey Aero 7+. As you know if you look at the top of the review, I wrote it... I like it a lot, I just with the features had been better executed. :)

2 - Posted by roblae on June 17, 2003 - 7:32 pm

Looks to be an excelent H/S the Tt Volcano11 W/O the noise 8)

3 - Posted by Kurtis on June 17, 2003 - 9:11 pm

better than the volcano11 :) and minus the noise hehe

4 - Posted by caniswolfie on June 18, 2003 - 10:44 am

I picked one of these up and I like it a lot. I basically wanted it for the noise reduction and man is it quiet..

Now I have to do something about my case fans.. ;)

5 - Posted by Kurtis on June 18, 2003 - 10:55 am

:) see. I speak the truth, my children :P

6 - Posted by Brian on June 18, 2003 - 11:03 am

He calls you all his children because he knows he can never have kids of his own... not with his ugly mug ;-)

j/k Kurtis :D

7 - Posted by Kurtis on June 18, 2003 - 2:26 pm

brian, its not the mug you drink from that matters to the chicks, it's the wallet that puts the drinks in the mug. :P

8 - Posted by handrail on June 19, 2003 - 10:22 am

too bad that thing is so hard to install. i was planning on getting it for my new gaming machine, but i went with the aeroflow...and i love it anyway.

that blower looks so cool...plus it's called a "blower" so it must be the shizz.

i love the bigarse copper heatsink too. i have a cooler master all copper one with the heatpipes on my home machine, i just have the badger chopper thermal take fan on it and at times it can get LOUD. especially when i am shoving small mammals into the blades :twisted:

9 - Posted by posing on July 15, 2003 - 5:58 pm

Usually with cpu fans u only have the little power connector to connect to cpu fan connector on the motherboard. On the aero 7+, do u also connect the other two connectors up to the power supply unit? Currently with only the little connector connected, the fan won't turn. Help!

10 - Posted by caniswolfie on July 15, 2003 - 7:28 pm

The aero 7+ has a connector that goes to the mainboard to send the fan rpm data and another connector to receive power directly from the p/s. There is also a third connector that controls the fan RPM that ban be placed in a 3.5 bay or in a slot cover in the back.

11 - Posted by posing on July 16, 2003 - 7:31 am

So is the little connector which can fit on the cpu fan power prongs on the motherboard (I'm using a A7N8X standard) should go there? Two of the other leads look like psu power lead connectors - one has 4 pins sticking out and the other has 4 holes. Presumaly the 4 hole lead connect to psu directly. What about the 4 pin lead? I got the knob lead connected to a pci bracket.

12 - Posted by caniswolfie on July 16, 2003 - 9:23 am

Yeah the connector that connects to the mainboard cpu fan power should go there. The other two connectors are a pass through for the power. You should plug in a molex connector from the power supply into one of them and then you should be set.

The other connector is if you want to plug in some other devices. They do that so that you don't lose an entire molex connector to the cpu fan.

13 - Posted by Cabot_Teg118 on July 29, 2003 - 4:05 pm

Wow, that looks really cool. I'll have to get one for my upcoming computer.

Nice review :D

14 - Posted by Kurtis on July 29, 2003 - 7:12 pm

thank you :)

15 - Posted by KiMcH33 on August 15, 2003 - 7:07 pm

good review..i wanted one so badly when it first came out..but im too lazy to order it

16 - Posted by The Fever on January 20, 2004 - 12:10 pm

I just dropped by Fry's to check out this fan, but noticed that the friggin thing was humongous! Is it supposed to be the size of your fist, or was I looking at an Aero7+ for another processor? The processor I have is a Athlon XP 1900+ thats probably going to be upgraded to a 2800+ Barton

17 - Posted by Rich on January 20, 2004 - 2:42 pm

oh yea, its big, but it works great. Actually it is pretty quiet for the size it is too.

18 - Posted by Kurtis on January 20, 2004 - 5:23 pm

yeah its a big one...

I actually got myself a Thermalright heatsink just b/c it's a bit smaller etc. plus I have installed / uninstalled the Aero 7+ so many times that i've stripped a couple of the screw holes on the fan.

As such, I put it in one of the computer's downstairs that doesn't get messed with much. Still works great, and it's not very loud either when you put it on medium speed.

19 - Posted by killa on February 26, 2004 - 7:33 am

hi, i have owned both of theses cpu coolers and in my opinion the thermaltake model is far better, yes it might be alittle more noisy but it has a faster max rpm. my cpu is 8 to 10oC cooler with a volcano 11

2600xp AMD Athlon 333fsb , thermaltake vocano 11
coolermaster premium thermal paste
Corsair xms 3200 ddr 1x 512mb
Powercolour ATI 9800pro 128mb 401/352
120gb maxtor 7200rpm 8mb
Audigy2
thermaltake xaserIII 2000a.
thermaltake purepower 480watts
thermaltake orb northbridge cooler
windows xp pro

20 - Posted by Kurtis on July 10, 2007 - 11:43 pm

Fast forward 4 years... and the Aero 7's fan is finally dying...

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