Spire Verticool II SP601B3 Heatsink Review :: Spire Verticool II SP601B3 Features

Somewhere in the world right now, endless legions are flowing from a factory. Standing shoulder to shoulder, they know nothing, not even their names. The start to a bad war flick? Hardly - it's more of a description of Spire's packaging than anything else. In another one of their identical "CPU Cooler" boxes resides this little demon, protected by nothing but a thin sheath of cardboard outside, and made to share these closed quarters with dual mounting plates (LGA 775, AMD K8), as well as some thermal grease, a manual, and K8 arms.

Thankfully, the sink itself is considerably more stylish than the box that it came from. Based on a design which was first catered to the market in ages past - that being one of a small base feeding heatpipes going up into a congress of fins, Spire's cooler isn't exactly inspiring in its identical appearance to most of the performance world. Starting from the front of things, the fan seems to be a one-off job from the hands of Spire, as it's design utilizes the best of the closed frame world, but also has enough space to allow airflow in. The result is that this fan - with its slight growl at full tilt - shouldn't catch any wiring, yet will still provide enough airflow that it can be felt through the fins.

From the corners of this fan, four pointed screws make their way into a light blue shroud that wraps up to the top of the cooler, holding the fan on with a few screws on the top and bottom of the unit, while simultaneously providing a bit of protection for the heatpipes, and indicating the direction of airflow with some arrows. As the view of this world pans along the oddly hued shroud, the curve of the world seems to come into view. Utilized on some past coolers, the curved back seems to be an exercise in futility when it comes to maximizing the airflow passing through the sink, especially considering that the highest point sits - for the most part - beyond the fan's dead spot.

Taking a look down the back of this cooler, between each individual fin of the cooler, are the pipes which feed the rising heights of the fins. Though four runs of pipe appear between the fins, there are actually only two heatpipes, which, in a technique utilized for ages now, operate by looping through the sink's base to maintain the effectiveness of the two pipes. Unfortunately, it also seems that the life of this base is a rather rough one, as untamed solder leaps from between the two copper blocks, responsible for transferring heat to and from the pipes, the base, and the fins, as well as holding down the retention brackets which will keep this sink tied firmly to your motherboard of choice. On the positive side of things, though, the base of this cooler's peel able sticker hides from the world a beautifully machined, mirrored base, an indication that Spire has paid attention to quality where it really counts. The final thing about the cooler is the mounting mechanisms - an item which will be covered on the next page over, of course.

Discuss This Article