Mini HSF Roundup - Spire vs Thermal Integration vs OCZ

Spire CopperKing II

One of the first things that you notice when you take the CopperKing II out of the box is the shine. This cooler has an exceptional polished finish all over, from top to bottom. But as we always said in the military, "It looks good, but can it fight?"

The heatsink of the CopperKing II is all copper (guess that's where it got the name...huh?) and measures in at 63mm x 60mm x 26mm. Though it is a smaller sink than many others, the weight was comparable to larger sized models that I have tested in the past. And, of course, that polished finish does a fine job of making it look good too.

As you can see above, the finish on the base of this cooler is just like everywhere else. When I looked closer at its makeup, it appears to be some sort of anodized coating, but since the base material is copper, it shouldn't have adverse effects on the cooling. We'll have to test that out when it comes to the testing later on.

The clipping mechanism of this cooler is a bit old-fashioned, but managed to keep the cooler firmly in place when it was connected to the motherboard. It did, however, seem a little tight to me. Enough so that it may have some of the newer users thinking about using a shim, anyway.

The fan used for the CopperKing II is an FTC branded model that measures in at a tiny 60mm x 60mm x 15mm. It spins at roughly 5,000RPM and delivers 19-CFM airflow at 32dBA of sound output. What this means is that we're going to have to be looking at a very serious heatsink design to get acceptable temperatures with this thing. Considering that we'll be testing on a Palomino based rig, we're going to have some heat output!

Here is something that you don't see all the time, a small tube of thermal compound added to the cooler. Sure, we see the small one-time use packets in some brands boxes, but nothing like this. The small tube uses what looks to be a silicone based compound like many others, but it is much easier to use than the messy packets and there is enough for several applications. Nice touch Spire.