SUMMARY: Evercool has been in the business of producing cooling components for some time, but have never tried to hit it big in the End User arena... until now. Come join Mike "Darthtanion" Wright as he takes a look at three sinks from Evercool and lets you know whether they have what it takes to be contenders. Being very inexpensive coolers, we'll look to see if the Price vs. Performance ratio makes them worthy to reside within your rig.
Our first contestant is the ND12-625 HSF. It is a largish sink that is constructed of aluminum, and is rated by Evercool to handle AMD Athlon processors up to 1.5GHz.
The Heatsink
The heatsink of this unit consists of 22 fins laid out in a vertical manner across a base of aluminum. The overall dimensions of the sink are 80mm x 63.5mm x 40mm. The four small clips pictured above are the mounting clips for the fan. Since there is a goodly amount of mass to work with here, the overall weight of the HSF (including fan) is a shade over 300 grams.
The Base
The base of the unit has been planed flat, but should really be lapped before using. While there weren’t any large grooves or machining marks to speak of, it didn’t have a smooth feel, so a little lapping will help out considerably. After all, the flatter the base, the better the contact between core and sink.
The Fan
As stated in the Introduction, Evercool makes its own DC fans, and this is one example. The fan is a standard sized unit and measures 60mm x 60mm x 25mm. It spins at 6,500 RPM, creates 31-CFM of airflow, and puts out an estimated 34dBA of sound. While it’s not got quite the punch of the mighty Delta fans, the reduction in noise was a nice change of pace.
Unfortunately, there was no fan grill installed on this model. I’ve harped on about this feature before, and it’s more a required protection for internal wiring than a protection of tender fingers. Any high-speed fan should be equipped with a grill.
The Clip
This is basically the same variety of clip that was included on heatsinks made a couple of years ago. The protrusion pictured above is a smallish slot designed to fit the blade of a screwdriver to help get it over the Socket lug…and you WILL need help in getting that done. I finally managed to get the sink installed with the use of two screwdrivers and a lot of patience. A newer design on this clip would be a huge improvement!
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