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Spire Fourier IV CPU Cooler
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Installation:
Installing Fourier IV was not tricky, but certainly a handful. Before installing the cooler, it is first had to be assembled. Because of the cooler’s structure there is no direct way to screw the cooler onto the motherboard, so the guys over Spire designed legs that screw on to the bottom of the cooler before the cooler is mounted. The legs are an ingenious solution to the motherboard problem. Since AMD and Intel boards sockets have different sizes sockets and hole locations, instead of substituting the whole kit all the user needs to do is replace these legs. The back-plate conveniently has all of the necessary adjustments.
Finally, to install this cooler I had to take the motherboard off to affix the back plate onto the motherboard. Although it is quite bothersome to have to remove the back plate off of the motherboard, it does bring reassurance that the cooler is firmly affixed and is not going anywhere.
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Testing:
The testing went rather painless as this cooler performed up and beyond my expectations. Despite being less than 120 mm the 3500 RPM fan along with the heatsink did an excellent job in cooling the Q6600 @ 2.4 GHz. In fact that it cooled the processor at stock speeds so well that I was encourage to test it in overclocked conditions to see how it performed. Here are the results (all values are in degrees C)
Idle |
2.4 GHz | 3.285 GHz | 3.6 GHz |
| Spire Fourier IV | 42 |
46 |
49 |
| Bigwater SE | 37 |
42 |
47 |
| Glacialtech Igloo 5750 | 44 |
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| Noctua NH - U12P | 42 |
45 |
Load |
2.4 GHz | 3.285 GHz | 3.6 GHz |
| Spire Fourier IV | 55 |
65 |
77 |
| Bigwater SE | 52 |
62 |
67 |
| Glacialtech Igloo 5750 | 59 |
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| Noctua NH - U12P | 55 |
66 |
Testing concluded with very admirable results. At overclocked conditions the Spire cooler performed almost up to par with the Bigwater SE watercooled system, however, under load the temperatures shut up all the way to 77 degrees. Fourier IV did not beak a sweat when presented with stock speeds of the Q6600 keeping the CPU well under 60 C. One thing that I noted was that the cooler made the system considerably noisier.
Conclusion
Priced at 49.95 at buy.com the Spire Fourier IV is definitely a cooler that you should consider if you are interested in high-performance heatsink's and mid-range overclocking. This coolers presents great performance per dollar and will definitely worth the the investment in the long run.
Pros:
- Excellent cooling ability
- Cooper design
- 3500 RPM High Performance fan
Cons:
- Noisy
- Requires un mounting of the motherboard
- Heavy
REAL TIME PRICING