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Installation
Installation of this cooler was pretty easy. Just hook the rear over lay the cooler flat onto the core of the processor insert a screwdriver into the slot on the front end of the clip and press down. The clip is a little stout so some effort will be needed to get it hooked over. Its nice that the base of this isn't as big as the top cause it made installtion really easy. It cleared those pesky capacitors on the 8K3A+ with ease.
Temperatures will be taken at idle 15 min after a fresh boot. Load temperatures will be taken after 30 minutes of running Folding@Home. Temperatures were taken with Motherboard Monitor 5.2.0.0. Room temperature was maintained at a steady 72F for testing. System specs are as follows...
- AMD XP 1600+ AROIA-Y
- Epox 8K3A+
- 1024 Megs Corsair XMS PC2700
- Western Digtial SE 120 Gig
- ATI Radeon 8500
- Hercules GTXP
- Arctic Alumina thermal compound
As most probably know, but for those of you who don't, the 8K3A+ reads the temps of the AMD XP's from the internal thermistor on the CPU itself and not the socket thermistor. Because of this the temps may seem a little on the high side. But its nothing to worry about. It is a more accurate way to read the temps than by reading from behind the chip as done on most pre-kt333 boards.
Results
Final Thoughts
Not to shabby I might say. Keep in mind this cooler isn't designed for heavy overclocking. This chip will clock to 1.9GHz with a heavy 2.05v's... I wasn't able to make it into Windows at this speed. It will run 1.83GHz @ 1.95v's but would lockup after about 5 min in Windows. 1.75GHz @ 1.85v's was the sweet spot where it ran stable for 3 days straight while testing out this cooler.
Overall Spire has done a good job with this cooler. The addition of the 3 prong clip and the copper insert to the base of the heatsink make this cooler even better than its predecessor. And is QUIET!!! That is always a major plus with any cooler that we review. I would really like to see what a higher speed 80mm fan would do on this heatsink. Maybe I'll save that for another article. :)
A special thanks goes out to the great people at Fanner Group for sending us this heatsink for review!
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