Viewing page 1 of 4 pages.
1 2 3 4 NextMarch 6, 2007 by Mike
Chin
|
Product
|
Spire Fourier IV
CPU Heatsink/Fan
|
|
Manufacturer
|
|
|
Market Price
|
US$42 |
Spire is a heatsink brand that's been around for over 15 years, but it's
not instantly recognized by every PC enthusiasts. That's because the brand has
traditionally been more focused on cost-effective cooling solutions of greater
interest to system integrators than to overclocking and performance fanatics.
Such a focus is certainly no reflection on the quality of the products; Spire
has had some very good products that belie their generally low price tags, a
bit like Arctic Cooling.
Spire's current product lineup includes dozens of heatsinks, along with PC
cases, fans, hard drive enclosures, and even power supplies — but who doesn't
offer power supplies these days!? The item examined in this review is an all-copper
heatsink with four heatpipes that's among Spire's top models, priced accordingly,
definitely not a budget model.
The Fourier IV comes packaged in a retail box made entirely of
clear plastic. We've never liked such packaging because of what they mean for
the environment, during both production and disposal. It would be nice if unbleached
recycled cardboard with a minimum of color ink was used instead.
Way too much plastic in the packaging is environmentally unfriendly.
|
Our sample came with mounting adapters for socket 775, 478 and K8. On
Spire's
web page, AM2 support is listed and 478 has been dropped; our sample must be from an
earlier production run. There's also an illustrated installation guide,
Thermal Interface Material, two sets of screws, and a simple fan speed
controller.
|
|
|
| Feature & Brief |
Our Comment |
|
All Copper High-density Wave Heat Sink
|
All copper is good but potentially heavy,
the high density usually refers to tight fin spacing, which is not so good,
and "wave" probably refers to the profile of the top edges of
the fins, as you'll see later. |
|
4 thermally improved copper heat-pipes
|
Improved over... their earlier heatpipes?
Competitors' heatpipes? |
|
Universal Clip for 754 / 940 / 775 / 939 / AM2 sockets
|
Actually it's not one clip but three sets of mounting hardware.
|
|
Silent; Manually controlled PCI Fan Control
|
That doesn't really define
silent, but a speed controller is good to have. |
|
Passive or active solution; Swift click on/off fan
|
It's just part of the switch.
The high fin density does not look good for passive cooling, but Spire does
mention "when utilizing a low power Celeron or Duo-Core micro processor
with good system cooling." |
|
|
|
Model Number
|
SP607B3-C |
|
Dimensions
|
126×107×99 mm (l × w × h)
|
|
Weight
|
N/A (Our estimate is ~700g w/o fan; the fan would add 80~90g)
|
|
Thermal Resistance
|
0.21 C°/W
|
|
Compatibility
|
Intel LGA775 (SocketT) Processors
AMD Socket AM2 Processors
AMD Socket 940 Processors
AMD Socket 939 Processors
AMD Socket 754 Processors
|
|
Fan Dimensions
|
92×92×25 mm
|
|
Voltage / Current / Power
|
12VDC / 0.20 - 0.40 A / 2.4 - 4.8 W
|
|
Air Flow
|
36.8 - 58.21 CFM
|
|
Speed
|
2000 - 3500 RPM +/-10%
|
|
Noise
|
19.0 - 26.0 dBA (at what distance?)
|
| Bearing Type |
Ball |
| Help support this site, buy from one of our affiliate retailers! |
|
