Enermax ETS-N30R-HE and ETS-N30R-TAA CPU Cooler Review

Introduction, Specifications, and Pricing

When it comes to cooling a PC, not always is the best of the best in cooling technology, or the pricing associated with it, what the customer truly needs. In fact, the CPU air cooling market has made a few advances in cooler design, which has eliminated most of the issues older tower designs showed with newer motherboards. So this makes it almost as easy to use a tower cooler in most instances, rather than to have to opt to liquid coolers for access to all of your memory, and not hovering over motherboard screws to be able to compete.

Along with staying "inside the box" with this design, Enermax has added a few features to make this compact cooler design run with the big dogs. They opted for an asymmetric design to allow access to memory by offsetting the heat pipes, and being a 92mm tower covers the main issues, but they do even more. There is the Vortex Generator Flow technology, using small fins near the heat pipes, which moves air toward the next pipe in line. This design also offers a Vacuum Effect, which keeps air moving through the fins rather than blown out the sides of it, and both of these should take the best advantage of the optional fan dependent on which of these two coolers you opt into. On top of those technologies at the top of the cooler, Enermax offers the base of these coolers milled down so that Heat-pipe Direct Touch is what is left to remove the heat from the processor.

For such a small tower cooler, it seems that Enermax has gone to great lengths, adding in the various technologies, to keep these newer coolers in the fray with the massive list of coolers already out there. Of course, there are always users where space constraints make you have to think about these designs automatically, and in those instances, compatibility and fitment are high on the list of needs. The reality is, though, once those boxes have been checked, performance and noise still come into play as well. If a cooler is not up to snuff in those departments, it will likely be overlooked. Just how well do these coolers perform? Keep reading as we look at the Enermax ETS-N30R-HE and the ETS-N30R TAA (LED fan version) for a spin, and see just how well these ETS-N30 II coolers stack up on our test bench.

In the Enermax ETS-N30 II series of coolers, we are offered a choice between the ETS-N30R-HE, and the slightly fancier ETS-N30R-TAA compact tower coolers. Both of them, sharing identical hardware, provide compatibility with all the current gear as well as many older sockets. With an array consisting of 43 aluminum fins, pressed over three heat pipes, this entire tower is only 137.2mm tall, 95mm wide, and 77.5mm thick, but no total weight is given. The trio of heat pipes is 6mm in diameter and run closely together in the base before it is shaved to expose the heat pipes in the aluminum base. Enermax also supplies a tube of TIM, and while it sports an Enermax sticker on it, it is TC-5121 from Dow Corning.

Here is where the designs differ. Both coolers are shipped with a 92mm fan to cool the tower, but one of the fans is an all-black UCHE9P on the HE, and the second option is the UCTAA9P sporting blue blades inside of a black frame, but also offers twelve LEDs around it in the TAA version. The ETS-N30R-HE has the most powerful fan, rated at 2800 RPM delivering 55.4 CFM with 4.37 mmH2O of pressure. The LED fan offers 2800RPM again, but the airflow and static pressure are reduced to 50.8 CFM and 3.86 mmH2O. Both fans are 4-pin PWM powered, but we do find the noise ratings are slightly different to each fan. The HE cooler is rated to 28 dBA maximum, and the TAA is ever so slightly quieter with a 27 dBA rating on it. The last important bit to know about these coolers is that they also come with a 150W TDP rating on both versions.

Shopping around, we see that affordability is a big factor in the ETS-N30 II coolers. We ventured over to Newegg first to see what they offer, and we found the ETS-N30R-HE listed at $35.45, and the ETS-N30R-TAA selling for $30.99, with mention of free shipping. It was then that we changed over to Amazon, and found a better deal on the ETS-N30R-HE, listed at just $27.95 with free shipping, but obtaining the ETS-N30R-HE costs slightly more, listed at $31.29. In essence, if you want more performance look to Amazon, and if fancy lights win the day, Newegg is your best bet. With the availability being good, and they certainly are affordable, all things are pointing to the fact that these ETS-N30 II coolers from Enermax could be contenders in a flooded market of products asking for your hard earned money.