Specifications, Availability and Pricing

As I mentioned, the basic dimensions and setup is exactly what we've seen previously with the original FLC-3000. Starting at the base, the R2 makes its most dramatic change. Keeping the SkiveTek aluminum pre-cooler in place, Nexus solders in the four 6mm heat pipes and leaves them exposed to a second base piece which is screwed to the SkiveTek heatsink. While the pipes are milled flat to each other, there are deep spaces between each, the aluminum gets the heat via the pipes, and it doesn't actually touch the processor. Where the pipes make contact, this is what Nexus calls Heat pipe On Core. The heatpipes go out of the base and make a tight turn and are left on a 30° angle. The copper pipes then pass through three varying sizes of 0.3mm thick fins, fifty-two in total.

The clear 92mm fan that Nexus includes sits inside of the cooler, well in a "U" shaped cutout in the fins. Inside the hub of this fan there are two amber lights that glow when the fan gets power via the 4-pin PWM connection. This fan operates at a near silent 900 RPM, and offers what I would guess to be around 70-80 CFM at 2500 RPM. Watch your fingers! There isn't any real protection besides the aluminum fins on the side of the cooler. With the angle laid out as it is, you get most of the surface area of a small tower cooler, but this fan can offer much needed air flow to other components on the motherboard instead of blowing it well above the board in a tower configuration. Universal mounting is also a big factor with the FLC-3000 R2. Any AMD socket with opposing tabs on the plastic ring can install the FLC-3000 R2, and with the use of a slightly redesigned Intel mounting piece, all of the latest mainstream Intel sockets are supported.

I have seen other reviews from mid August, and I just received my sample a few weeks ago. That in mind, I would have assumed to find this cooler in stock somewhere by now. To my dismay, I was unable to find the cooler stocked anywhere inside of the US. The original version is selling at Newegg.com currently for $44.95, and from what I am told, the proposed pricing of the R2 is going to be less than the original at a MSRP closer to $40. So as always, we have to look at the price objectively. For a smaller cooler $40 is fair; factor in the fact that the Nexus FLC-3000 R2 can fit in a lot of spaces a tower cooler can't is a huge plus, as today it seems smaller cases with more power packed in them is all the rage. Beyond the fit and looks of the FLC-3000 R2, we need to factor in the performance, so let's have a look at this new revision so we can see what sort of performance the R2 is capable of.