Legit Reviews

Spire Verticool III CPU Cooler Review



Are you in the market for a replacement for your stock cooler? Then Spire Coolers may have the cooler for you, the Verticool III. The VertiCool III has inherited the unique features from its counterpart, VertiCool II plus some improvements. Improvements include improved heat-pipes and 90mm center-position fan. Read on to see if this Intel socket 775 and AMD K8 series CPU cooler is right for your system!

ARTICLE URL: http://legitreviews.com/article/562/1/
ARTICLE TITLE: Spire Verticool III CPU Cooler Review

Nice job Shane.

Made me smile when you pulled out the ghetto mod card

Did you buy some electrical tape that you were dying to use by any chance?

Dan

I looked over the specs and didn't see a rated weight for the entire product. Knowing that this product is mostly copper, the weight should be higher than all the aluminum coolers in this size.

A few years back the ThermalRight XP-90 copper was so heavy, that people had to use caution with the unit fixtured onto the MOBO as it hanged in a verticle fashion. The XP-90 copper came in at 800g with the fan installed. The XP-90 aluminum with fan was a mere 430g. The aluminum was mostly preffered since it didn't stress the MOBO hanging verticle.

It would be interesting to see this product mounted in a MOBO in the verticle postion. Using the dead MOBO as a trial would would be handy to see if the MOBO would have a bend like the earlier test of tightening down the screws. That photo would be priceless to anyone considering the product.

Knowing that the unit has few heat-pipes, it would be interesting to see a mild OC until the maximum performance level was reached. However, it isn't clear if the testing was done on a bench or in an enclosed case with the proper ventilation per the AMD or Intel Thermal Design guides.

Other than the weight issue, I'm pleased to follow and read the article.

DMB2000uk wrote:Nice job Shane.

Made me smile when you pulled out the ghetto mod card

Did you buy some electrical tape that you were dying to use by any chance?

Dan

Ghetto as for the tape it was all I had handy, couldn't find the duct tape

stev wrote:I looked over the specs and didn't see a rated weight for the entire product. Knowing that this product is mostly copper, the weight should be higher than all the aluminum coolers in this size.

A few years back the ThermalRight XP-90 copper was so heavy, that people had to use caution with the unit fixtured onto the MOBO as it hanged in a verticle fashion. The XP-90 copper came in at 800g with the fan installed. The XP-90 aluminum with fan was a mere 430g. The aluminum was mostly preffered since it didn't stress the MOBO hanging verticle.

It would be interesting to see this product mounted in a MOBO in the verticle postion. Using the dead MOBO as a trial would would be handy to see if the MOBO would have a bend like the earlier test of tightening down the screws. That photo would be priceless to anyone considering the product.

Knowing that the unit has few heat-pipes, it would be interesting to see a mild OC until the maximum performance level was reached. However, it isn't clear if the testing was done on a bench or in an enclosed case with the proper ventilation per the AMD or Intel Thermal Design guides.

Other than the weight issue, I'm pleased to follow and read the article.

Stev, on the weight didn't realize it was left out... don't see it on the Spire site, let me check the box.......ah here we are, in real small print in one place 843g, 79g more than the Zalman. The testing was done bench style. The OC, well not well versed in such things. When I get my next CPU I will get the growing pains of over clocking cover out of the way with my current one.

I saw 858 grams some place too, but I think that was with the fan. Either way you look at it the Verticool III is roughly ~850 grams or 1.87392 lb

When up to the mail room and weighed it. The cooler,fan, and mounting hardware 2lbs. its not the heaviest one, but it sure isn't light LOL

Official answer from Spire for the weight of the heat sink: 0.74 Kilo gram

Apoptosis wrote:Official answer from Spire for the weight of the heat sink: 0.74 Kilo gram

all these 1.5-2+ pound scare me.
even if properly installed, it seems like over time they MIGHT sag away from the CPU.
not to mention all those dcut tape/getto installs

A nice little back plate mounting system should keep things from pulling away from the core.................

T-Shirt wrote: all these 1.5-2+ pound scare me.
even if properly installed, it seems like over time they MIGHT sag away from the CPU.
not to mention all those dcut tape/getto installs

There is a hefty backing plate with the cooler, so sag should not be an issue. As for the tape, that was just a handy way to hold the backing plate in place so I could put the screws in.

Even the Zalman 9700 LED sink and fan weighs in 764g, been using it for over 6 months and no issues yet.