Spire Coolers AMD Heat sink Comparison

[Brian]

We have a new review / comparison of some heat sink / fans from Spire Coolers, check it out!

http://www.thetechlounge.com/review.php?REVIEWDIR=spirecoolers

As always, feel free to comment here!

[blakerwry]

This could have been a nice review.. i'm missing two things. 1) what was the ambient temperature? how are we supposed to know the net temperature when used with each cooler?

2) I would like to see the coolers used with a single constant "control" fan. This would help use quiet PC enthusiasts to get a good idea of which cooler is most efficient, and thus will be the quietest when used with a fanmate or custom fan, etc.


Additionally, spire coolers are not that great performers. You can get better, but their selling point is not performance. It's value! Check out newegg's prices and you will see that these coolers go for under $10, yet perform on par with something two to three times as costly. No mention of cost/value was even hinted at in this article. i would have really appreciated something about this.


anyway, im out. I might check back on this post in a few days.

[Kurtis]

thanks for the input, I will make sure Brian sees this, perhaps he will edit his review. I do know that he did the review of all 3 in the same day so the ambient temperature was the same for each, however I think the reason he did not use one fan for each review was because we review things as is from the manufacturer.

However, if you would like us to do an article on using the heatsinks with a different fan, we might do that. Would you like us to do that? Thanks for the feedback once again, I appreciate it.

[Mercutio]

I've got something over a dozen machines with Falconrock IIs sitting around. Mostly on GA7VAXPs. I've got one Microflow II sitting on a GA7VAXP.

So, after reading this article and thinking "Hm. That really doesn't match my experience at all.", I went and checked.

Two machines, in the same room. both with Palamino 1700+s, both running RedHat Linux. Same motherboard, same PCB rev. Both are using artic silver thermal paste as a thermal interface.

The little temperature gauge I keep in that room (there ARE ten computers in there) shows room temp is 73 degrees.

Reported temps are 41.6 degrees for the Microflow, 42.8 degrees for the FalconRock. Both machines are under moderate load as file servers (5 IDE hard disks apiece) and have been running the Folding@home client software for several weeks now, which should be maxing out CPU utilization.

So, why are my numbers so much different than yours? Forget the 10 degree difference between your measurement and mine, why is there so little difference between my Microflow and FalconRock and so much between your Microflow and Falconrock?

[Brian]

This could have been a nice review.. i'm missing two things. 1) what was the ambient temperature? how are we supposed to know the net temperature when used with each cooler?

2) I would like to see the coolers used with a single constant "control" fan. This would help use quiet PC enthusiasts to get a good idea of which cooler is most efficient, and thus will be the quietest when used with a fanmate or custom fan, etc.


Additionally, spire coolers are not that great performers. You can get better, but their selling point is not performance. It's value! Check out newegg's prices and you will see that these coolers go for under $10, yet perform on par with something two to three times as costly. No mention of cost/value was even hinted at in this article. i would have really appreciated something about this.


anyway, im out. I might check back on this post in a few days.


1) Sorry about the lack of ambient temps, that was a complete brain fart.

2) We review the items AS THEY ARE MEANT TO BE USED. The FridgeRock, was reviewed exactly how it would be used by the average consumer.

3?) I will check up on the prices and add that into the review.


I've got something over a dozen machines with Falconrock IIs sitting around. Mostly on GA7VAXPs. I've got one Microflow II sitting on a GA7VAXP.

So, after reading this article and thinking "Hm. That really doesn't match my experience at all.", I went and checked.

Two machines, in the same room. both with Palamino 1700+s, both running RedHat Linux. Same motherboard, same PCB rev. Both are using artic silver thermal paste as a thermal interface.

The little temperature gauge I keep in that room (there ARE ten computers in there) shows room temp is 73 degrees.

Reported temps are 41.6 degrees for the Microflow, 42.8 degrees for the FalconRock. Both machines are under moderate load as file servers (5 IDE hard disks apiece) and have been running the Folding@home client software for several weeks now, which should be maxing out CPU utilization.

So, why are my numbers so much different than yours? Forget the 10 degree difference between your measurement and mine, why is there so little difference between my Microflow and FalconRock and so much between your Microflow and Falconrock?

First off, our temps are alot higher than most others because we are in the dead center of Texas. It is 100 degrees outside, and inside, it isn't much cooler. I should have added the ambient temperature to the review, but neither Kurtis or I noticed this before the review was posted. We double check eachother's reviews before we post, and somehow this slipped by.

As for the difference between the MicroFlow II and the FalconRock, our FalconRock's fan was at a very low speed, so low that it would be hard to tell if it was on. As noted on the website, this is meant to be a quiet cooler, thus won't perform as well. Maybe we got a bad fan that was going even slower than it should, and that may have affected performance. But remember, we take the temperature of EVERYTHING the EXACT SAME WAY, and the ambient temperature didn't change more than +-.5 degrees C during the tests. I can't explain why your temperatures are any different, but we use the EXACT same machine, and procedure for testing every heatsink.

Thanks for the feedback though! :D

[ELiTE KiLLaH]

i thought itw as pretty good
probably teh same layout i would have used

ayways, about the guy saying you should use a constant fan in the review, you cant really do that when the fan sizes are different..
you could have on the two that were 70x70, but thats about it

anyways, i like the "reviewed as they are meant to be used" policy...i mean its not like you ahve the option of buying JUST hte heatsink right? (or are there?)

i think those kind of reviews, where u try different fans, are best left for the hetasinks that come with no fans, so as you can test a quiet, med, and loud fan on them and note the temps

anwyas, nice job :)

[Kurtis]

I personally agree Elite, thanks for the input :)

[handrail]

i thought the review was just fine. made me remember why i spend the extra $$ on a good heatsink. i'm all for quiet, but not when my new CPU is in danger of becoming silicon soup.

the fact that you guys are in texas makes the review even better in my opinion. the ambient temp. serves to really push the HSF and mimics more accurately the way most comps are used. very few people monitor the ambient air constantly to achieve a precise 21 degree C ambient temp.

[Kurtis]

yea its hot as a mother down here :cry:

[blakerwry]

As I stated, quiet enthusiasts are willing to do just about anything here. We want to know how efficient the cooler actually is.

number 1 i'd like to see the product reviewed as is (this is, of course, a product comparision/rating).

But number 2, I'd ALSO like to see a comparision of the efficiency/design of the coolers being reviewed. The only way to see which cooler is more efficient is to control all variables and change only 1 variable(the independant variable) while measureing the results (the dependant variable)

In this case the independant variable would be the cooler used (the mobo, CPU, and fan, and ambient temps would stay the same) The dependant variable would be the temperature of the CPU at idle and load.

I think it'd be possible to use a single 70mm fan on all these coolers.. if that was somehow not possible, perhaps spinning all fans at the same RPMs(same aprox noise levels) would mimic the real world use best.

[Kurtis]

at the same time blake, why not just invest in a good HSF combo? there really is no need to mix and match heatsink and fan unless you are trying to squeeze every bit of value you can out of a dollar. am i right?

[Brian]

Once again, we review the product AS IS. The company provides a certain heatsink with a certain fan and promise a certain performance. If we slapped a huge Delta fan on the FalconRock II, we wouldn't be reviewing what the customer will buy, know what I mean?

[ELiTE KiLLaH]

I think it'd be possible to use a single 70mm fan on all these coolers.. if that was somehow not possible, perhaps spinning all fans at the same RPMs(same aprox noise levels) would mimic the real world use best.

it would be possible, but ppl looking to buy a cheap heatsink are not gonna go mod it up and slap on a fan that doesnt "technically" fit, plus it might have adverse effects due to a greater "dead spot"

and if you spin a 70mm fan at 5000rpm, the CFM output is not gonna be close to a 60mm fan spinning at 5000rpm...

heatsinks like say slk800 which from the factory come with no fan (afaik) you can say that about, becuase that specific heatsink is made to use either 60mm, 70mm, or 80mm fans. That means you gotta buy a separate fan after the heatsink, which means there is a level of "customization" which the customer needs to make a decision on. On these heatsinks, the need to customize is almost nonexistant, and everything u need is included.

You could if you wanted to slap on an 80mm fan somehow onto the 70mm heatsinks, but that wouldn't be a "controlled" review becuase what you get and test wont be what the customer will buy and get...not many will buy another fan to stick on a heatsink if the current one supplied with it works just fine...

[blakerwry]

I guess what I'm looking for isn't a product review. I want a quiet HSF comparison... a shootout between these 3 popular speeze models to see which one can cool a CPU to the same temp while being the quietest.

If you aren't interested in doing it, hey that's fine. But if I had access to all 3 of these HSFs I would.