Reeven Steropes RC-1206

[testman78]

Introduction

REEVEN is a newly established international manufacturer of PC related products in 2008.REEVEN's product lines include the best quality and the most advanced CPU Coolers, Cooling Fans, Power Supply Units, PC Cases and many other items. The target for these products is a wide variation of end users under the philosophy "Tools for Professionals". The professionals never compromise the quality, the performance and its beauty.Reeven recently release the Steropes RC-1206 low-profile CPU cooler.



Measuring 125 mm x 129 mm x 60 mm (WxDxH), it weighs about 470 g. Its design includes a chunky copper+aluminium base that doubles up as a heatsink, from which five nickel-plated copper heat pipes pass through. The heat pipes draw heat away from the base, and to an aluminium fin stack that's arranged along the plane of the motherboard, which is then ventilated by a 12 mm-thick 120 mm fan that spins between 500 and 2,000 RPM, pushing between 12.13 and 45.47 CFM of air,with noise output proportionately ranging between 9.32 and 33.67 dBA. The fan supports draws power from a 4-pin PWM fan header. The cooler supports most modern CPU socket types, including Intel LGA115x, AMD AM3+, and FM2+.




Packaging & Contents


The Reeven Steropes is a small heatsink so the packaging is quite compact as well. It is mostly grey with the yellow accents on some text and specifications listed at the back.



Around the box there are various shots of the cooler itself including the more detailed features too.



Moving to the back there is the specification for the Reeven Steropes in 6 different languages and explain two of its main feature.



Opening up the box of the Steropes presents us immediately with the fan that sits on a cardboard container that houses the accessories and installation booklet.Underneath the cardboard container lays the cooler, which as I mentioned earlier, lays on nothing more than the packaging itself.



The cooler was well supported, with no room for it to move or slide around inside the box. The mounting hardware itself came sealed in plastic bags that were placed inside a small cardboard box for safe storage. The package Reeven used is compact and adequate while providing ample protection and hardly wasting any room.A thermal paste comes in a small plastic bag so the Reeven Steropes heatsink can be installed right out of the box.



A detailed fold-out installation guide is supplied to assist users with the mounting process.




A Closer Look

The profile as we mentioned at the beginning is just 60mm high which is very small indeed. This solution is perfect for Small Form Factor systems and HTPCs.



Here is a closer look at the heatsink for those of you who want an idea about fan spacing.When you take a look at the cooler from a "top" view, you are able to see that the 120mm fan is able to cover all of the fins that are located on the cooler. This will allow for better cooling capabilities, by being able to effectively cool all of the fins and heatpipes, allowing for more heat to be displaced to these parts.



Looking at the top of the Steropes,we see that there are spacers folded down between each fin to keep the spacing correct. I am still not sure of the reason for the notch in the design, but we have to assume there was good reason for it to be added, just not sure what that would be.



You can see it uses a rather complex heat pipe arrangement but all those heat pipes crammed into such a small space can only mean good performance.



The lower section of fins is cut to allow the tops of the pipes to past through the fins, but they are also soldered to the copper base plate that has also been plated.



The base is mounted on the bottom of a large aluminium heatsink.



The Steropes is polished only half-way, showing its original machining grooves across most of its surface. These grooves are shallow and should fill nicely with paste to provide a fairly good thermal interface, and are protected from oxidation with nickel plating.



The bundled fan is a slim 12mm thick 120mm form factor fan. It has 15 blades that has a sightly concave tip and convex trailing edge.



It is a 4-pin PWM fan that has cool looking sleeved wires.



This fan runs at a range of 500 to 2000 RPM and has a maximum airflow of 45.47 CFM.




Installation Process

Place these insulation washers in the holes then secure the Steropes heatsink with the four screws at the rear. Make sure to use a screw driver to fully secure the Steropes in place and have proper contact. While it is possible to just use thumbs to secure these last screws, the contact will not be as optimal.The lack of backplate makes the Steropes fully compatible with mini-ITX mainboards at the back. Since it is lightweight and only uses small screws to secure in the rear, there are no conflicts with any surface mounted components.



For Intel installation,prepare the heatsink by securing the Intel mounting brackets with the four small screws.These are quite small so a Phillips-head precision screw driver is recommended although you can use a full-size Phillips-head screw driver if it has a sharp tip.



Users can choose between three different plattforms (LGA115x,LGA 775,1366)through mounting holes on the brackets.Apply thermal paste on the CPU or the base of the Steropes before securing it in the rear.



The easiest way to install would be to place the Steropes heatsink with the contact surface up to the air, apply thermal compound, then hover the motherboard on top until the mounting holes are aligned.The final step is the fan installation which also happens to be the easiest since it is tool-free and the mounting wires have plenty of flex to give. Simply hook one end of the clip to the top fan mounting hole, slide the wire length along the side groove then secure the other side of the clip to the other fan mounting hole.Standard thick fans can be installed with these clips but it will not be as secure since the groove at the bottom is much smaller. To install standard thickness fans, hook the clip at the bottom fan mounting hole instead.



On a horizontal desktop, HTPC or SFF system, the Reeven Steropes can be installed in either available orientation.




Installed - Memory Clearance

The problem is that tall memory modules will have conflicts(but only in this orientation).



Even with this fan installed, you can see there is plenty of room for medium and large heat spreaders to fit near the fan(in all other orientations).




Test System & Methology

Test System:

Processor: Intel Core i7 3770k
Motherboard:Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H
Memory: 16GB Mushkin
Graphics Card: Sapphire HD 6970
Power Supply: Antec HCG 750W
Chassis: Cooler Master Silencio 650 Pure
Boot Drive: Ocz Vector
Storage Drive: 3TB Seagate Barracuda



Software:

CPUID HW Monitor 1.23
CPUID CPU-Z 1.65
Prime95 v27.1

I am testing the performance as follows:

Ambient temperatures are kept at 23C throughout my tests.
The CPU Fan is set to 100% to eliminate inconsistencies as a result of PWM control.
Idle temperatures are obtained after booting the PC and idling on the desktop for 30 minutes.
Load temperatures are obtained after running Prime95′s Small FTTs test for 15 minutes.
To measure noise levels i disable the two front in-take fans, rear exhaust and GPU fan.
On the following pages you'll have the opportunity to read what Steropes is capable of.


Results -Performance

The Reeven Steropes surpassed both the Raijintek Pallas and Thermalright AXP-100 cooling solutions at stock clock speeds on the CPU.




Results - Noise Level

The cooler is generally quiet at idle, maxing out at 43 dBa under full, extended load.




Conclusion

So there you have it. The results speak for themselves but of course no review is complete without a conclusion to sum up the thoughts and findings.Performance wise, the Reeven Steropes cooler was pretty amazing given its size and the fan thickness.It managed to get some of the lowest idle and load temperatures i've ever seen within the small form factor cpu coolers which is an unexpected result for sure.The Steropes performs well and it should be a real contender within the small form factor industry.Their design is faultless and the mixture of Nickel coating with a black and yellow fan that they use across their entire range looks gorgeous and it wouldn't look out-of-place in virtually any rig. The Steropes looks especially nice and the low profile design, combined with the slim fan looks great, with more than enough clearance around to not conflict with ram(except one orientation), or other major components.Mounting is quite easy and practical but unfortunately the fan clips can cause some headache. Putting them in place requires a decent amount of force, since the clips fit rather tight. The mounting mechanism parts are solid, thermal paste comes in a small plastic bag and there is enough inside to mount the cooler twice.One key thing to remember is that a HTPC is usually designed with quietness in mind.The Steropes is very quiet at low rpm.



I can definitely recommend this cooler as it is a high quality cooler with a decent price of 41 US Dollars, and even good enough compete with more expensive and bigger coolers.I feel that this cooler deserves an Excellent award, due to the performance that it brought to the table.