Introduction:

Although Spire was founded in 1991, it's PC coolers are not highly accepted by computer enthusiasts, particularly amoungst overclockers. But, the price may attract many others. With production facilities in China, Corporate Office in the USA and overseas branches in The Netherlands, U.K., Germany, France, Taiwan, Japan and Brazil, Spire is ready to provide the best service for the resellers and end users.

Nowadays Spire is offering a wide range of CPU coolers, computer cases/ecnlosures, power supplies and many more you probably will hear in the near future or found their products in the shop down the street near you...

Today I'll be taking a closer look at the SP495S11-U, a.k.a. Spire QuieTude VI. Manufactured for the budget minded computer users, the name reveals part of its' capabilities; Silence.

After a year (or more) of continuous usage of your boxed Intel cooler, there's a big chance that is has become noisy, producing a rattling sound, and filled with dust plus other terrible things.... This review compares the cooler with the Intel boxed unit in not only performance wise, but also the sound level and design closely.

Let's take a closer look at the cooler itself:



Specifications:

The cooler is packaged a basic designed box. Inside you'll find the heatsink itself, a short manual and two clips you'll need to install the cooling. There's no extra tube of thermal compound added, because a layer of TIM is re-applied on the heatsink base.


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The cooler is made entirely of aluminum except a small part of the base, the center. But it’s hidden …
After cleaning the pre-applied thermal grease off, the copper core presents itself.


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Heat sink:

Size: 100x83x50 mm (l x w x h)

12VDC Fan:

Size: 80Å~80Å~25 mm

Type: Sleeve bearing

Rated speed: 2300 RPM +/-10%

Rated power / current: 1.20 W / 0.10 A

Noise level: 19.0 dBA

Air flow: 25.78 at 2,300 RPM +/-10%

Features: Blue transparent diamond fan, Copper core heatsink, tool-less installation

Description

Designed for the enthusiasts in mind, the QuieTude VI's custom translucent blue Diamond fan is attractively displayed in our new retail packaging.

The QuieTude VI™ features the same efficient copper core insert heat-sink technology and as the original QuieTude™, but has been upgraded with a more impressive look and ultra-silent 19.0dBA fan. This new fan generates a higher airflow to give the QuieTude VI™ improved cooling performance, and its designed for the faster Intel® Celeron and Pentium 4 Prescott™ processors up 3.6GHz.

Application:

Celeron D ~ 2.93 GHz 340J

Pentium 4 ~ 3.6 GHz (Prescott)

Pentium 4 ~ 3.4 GHz (Willamette / HT NW)

As you can see it's only suited for Intel Socket 478 processors. Rated to the fastest (Prescott) CPU, I also expect it to cool down the cpu at a level better then the original all aluminum cooler.

The complete information can be found here.


Installation:

The installation doesn’t differ much from the Intel supplied cooler. The boxed cooler uses some sort of hold down that can be clicked in the retention bracket. The only thing you need to do then is to pull down the levers.
The installation of Spire is similar if not identical to Intel Stock unit. After applying thermal grease on the cpu (in case you removed the pre applied pad), you place the sink on the processor. Then you take the two clips and hook them down in the retention bracket. This way there will be enough pressure on the processor exerted on the heatsink achieving efficient heat transfer.


Left the boxed cooler installed, on the right Spire.


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Time to test the heatsinks...