Spire AMD WhisperRock IV Cooler

Provided by: Spire
Retail: Est. $24.95
Review Date: September 29th, 2003
Written By: James S.

You think your after-market cooling solution is good on your AMD socket 462 processor? Lets see if it could be better. Today we'll look at Spire SPA04B4 WhisperRock IV™ and compare it to CPU-Cool 370H. With a name WhisperRock, we expect this cooler to be very quiet.

Click on image for larger picture

The WhisperRock IV comes securely packaged with plastic protecting the fan and bottom of the heatsink.

Specifications:

The manufacturer rated specs for the Spire SPA04B4 WhisperRock IV direct from the web site www.spire-coolers.com.

Socket 462 Cooling kit Dimensions:

• Heat sink : 80×80×44 mm (l × w × h)
• 12VDC Fan : 80×80×25mm
• Bearing: Ball bearing
• Rated speed: 2300 RPM +/-10%
• Rated power: 1.56
• Noise level: 21.0 dBA
• Air flow: 28.0 CFM
• Current: 0.09 A
• Life hours Ball: 50.000
• Blue transparent fan, 3 grip clip, Copper core, Fan Guard
• Connector: 3 Pin, main board

  Application

• Duron ~ 1.3 GHz (Morgan)
  Athlon XP ~ 2700+ (Thoroughbred)
  Athlon XP ~ 2100+ (Palomino)
  Athlon XP ~ 3200+ (Barton)
  Athlon MP ~ 2600+ (Thoroughbred)
  Athlon ~ 1.4 GHz (Thunderbird)
  

Features:

Spire's WhisperRock is an aluminum heatsink with a copper plug in the middle. The copper plug provides better heat transfer rates than straight aluminum. Although, the copper plug transfers less heat than an all copper heatsink.

Thick are the aluminum fins but they make a wave pattern. A unique design in itself and may improve cooling performance over a heatsink with level fins. A wave pattern will reduce turbulence under the fan allowing more air to flow down into the fins.

Click on image for larger picture

The copper core underside is very smooth which always helps cooling. Thermal paste is applied to the core. One thing I didn't like was the paste is a little off from when it was applied; therefore, it has to be spread around a little to cover the whole chip. If you are using another paste like Arctic Silver you will want to remove the paste with alcohol.

The clear blue fan is a nice looking touch, although the fan could have been an LED fan. I also felt that if the fan was not an LED fan, it could have been UV reactive; thus, allowing more modding capability to the cooler.

A sleeve is wrapped around the ATX power cord. This is perfect for tidying up your case. Less mess means more airflow.

Spire's WhisperRock uses a 3 pin clip which is a solid mounting clip for the AMD socket.

Installation:

Installation is fairly basic. A screw driver will be needed to fasten the clip to the motherboard. The pyramid design allows the heatsink to clear most smaller sized caps that are located right next to the CPU socket. Nothing like buying a cooler and then finding out it doesn't fit your board.

In case you are not sure of how to mount the WhisperRock heatsink, instructions are included.

<next page>