Article Index Review: Spire Thermax Eclipse II CPU Cooler Specifications and Features Photo Gallery and Closer Look Installation and Test Procedure BIOS and Windows Temps Idle Temps Load Temps Overclocked Temps Verdict and Conclusion

Introduction 

With so many big names dominating the market for CPU coolers and chassis, it's easy to forget that the are brands out there who's products offer very similar performance, but with one big difference. Price.

Brands like these are often overlooked in preference to bigger nam. And more often than not, their products are literally overwhelmed among the sea of other thermal products on the market. So what can a company or manufacturer do, to counter this? Well, one thing that always seem to work, is by offering similar products at a very low and attractive price. Spend less on marketing and more on R&D, that's the key. I know from my own personal experience, and from a consumer's point of view ... that if a product can offer similar performance at $10-20 cheaper than the bigger brands, then it's well worth considering.

One such manufacturer that springs to mind is Spire. I've seen many thermal products from Spire in the past, and as I've mentioned above, never really had a chance to take a proper look at them ... until now. As time progressed, the company has grown and expanded their product range to include more higher-end products. We're now seeing CPU coolers Spire in $50 dollar bracket or higher ... something which is quite unsual for a company like Spire.

Spire have been around since 1991, and are known to produce a wide range of products from chassis to CPU coolers. For those who are not familiar with Spire or their products, here's a little blurb taken from their website ...

In this review, we'll be taking a look at the Spire Thermax Eclipse II CPU cooler. This cooler is designed for both AMD (754, 939, AM2+, AM3) and Intel processors (LGA 775, 1156, 1366), and offers decent cooling performance between 130W to 150W Watts. It's equipped with five 8mm Direct Touch U-Shaped heat-pipes combined with black-nickel coated stamped heat-sink fins. The whole heatsink unit is cooled by two large, but quiet 120mm fan which spins at 2,2000 rpm, giving you a maximum air-flow of 93.34CFM. You have the option of mounting both fans ... I prefer just one fan for less noise.

The Thermax Eclipse II comes with anti-vibration rubber fan mounts that allows for easy tool-free installation of the fan. One of the first things that really strike you, are the five 8mm Direct Touch U-Shaped heat-pipes. They really look the business. There's also what appears to be a mini heatsink near the base of the heatsink.

The market for CPU coolers is already very saturated and is dominated by big manufacturers such as Coolermaster, Noctua, Arctic Cooling and Thermaltake. Can Spire really compete against these big names? Well, it's possible ... if the Thermax Eclipse II can offer good cooling performance at a price that's irresistibly attractive. We shall see ...

I'm expecting the Spire Thermax Eclipse II to produce some good temperature readings. The two powerful fans, along with its impressive 5 copper heatpipes, should be more than enough to handle any processor ... even an overclocked Core i5 - 650 @ 4.0Ghz, which we'll be using in our overclocking tests.

We'll be testing the Spire Thermax Eclipse II CPU cooler on our test rig which consist of an Intel Core i5 - 650 @ 3.2Ghz, Gigabyte P55-USB3 motherboard, Geforce GTX 460 OC, 4Gb Crucial Ballistix DDR3-2133 and a Thermaltake ToughPower XT 875W power supply. It's the same system we've been using to test other CPU coolers.

Right, let's take a closer look at the specifications and features of the Spire Thermax Eclipse II CPU cooler.

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