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Evercool HPFA-10025


Date
: 06/9/07 – 05:18:46 AM

Author
:

Category
: Cooling

Page 1 : Index

Manufacturer:
Evercool Thermal Co., Ltd.

Price:
N/A

Evercool has been around since 1992, and since then they have become well known among the enthusiast crowd with their wide range of cooling products. They produce cooling products for just about every PC component including laptops. Recently they have also delved into cooling products for game console systems. Evercool is also known for their products carrying themes such as The Serpent and The Rocket.

In keeping with their themed approach, today I will be taking a look at their latest heat pipe cooler, the HPF-10025 "Buffalo". The Buffalo comes in two variations, the HPFI-10025 for Intel processors' LGA775 socket type and the one I will be testing today, the HPFA-10025 for AMD processors with support for sockets 754, 939, 940 and AM2.

Page 2 : Package

While the package a product comes in doesn't make it perform better, we all like to see something that speaks about the product inside. I personally don't care for flashy or gaudy graphics, but rather prefer seeing a clean and to-the-point package.

The HPFA-10025 comes in a gloss black box without any windows. Evercool gives a nice clear picture of the Buffalo on the front with a black and what appears to be a flowing red cape in the background to symbolize the "bullfighting stance" that is advertised on the website. On the right side we get the heatsink and fan specifications. I will touch more on that later.

On the back we have an identical picture as the front and on the left side we see the installation instructions. Installation instructions for both Intel and AMD sockets are printed though only one set of mounting hardware is included. Also on the side is the specific model indication, HPFA-10025 being the specific model I have today.

Popping open the top shows us a small syringe of thermal grease. I was surprised that the included tube was not their STC-01, but one labeled 800 series. Also you can see the top plastic shell that holds the Buffalo securely in place.

Page 3 : Specifications

As I touched on earlier, the specifications were listed out on the side panel of the packaging and Evercool lists the specs on the site as well.

As you can see, the Buffalo uses a 100mm fan rated to spin at around 1800 rpm. With a dBA of less than 23, it should be pretty silent. The heatsink also rates in at 500g, so there should be no fear of any weight-related stress to the motherboard.

No surprise that Evercool includes their own fan; however a search for the fan on their website and Google produced no results. The cooler specifications give us all the information we need except for the volume of air the fan is pushing. At 100mm in size, replacements at that size are limited though the fan mounts support a 92mm fan. Just something to keep in mind in case you ever need or want to replace the fan. Evercool also uses an open frame for the fan, reducing turbulence over the frame and in turn reducing noise

Page 4 : Contents

As I mentioned earlier the only thing besides the cooler included in the box is a small tube of thermal grease.

The label on the tube says T-grease 800 Series, but I could not find anything under that name on Evercool's site. It carries the same thermal properties as their STC-01 thermal grease, so I am going to assume that is what this is.

Here in the full front view, you can see the fan almost entirely covers the surface of the 'tower' of fins. This coverage should allow ample airflow across the heatsink. As with the box styling, they have gone with a red and black scheme that is actually quite attractive in my opinion. On the front of the fan you also have the Buffalo name and logo.

Taking a look at the side, you can see the heatpipes as they extend out of the base into the body of fins. Altogether the finish of the HFA-10025 is top notch, with no blemishes to note.

A quick shot of the back shows the spacing of the fins, which should allow nearly unhindered air flow. You can also see just how well the fan covers this area.

Here we can see the block and the post that holds the clip in place. The two holes in the side is for the Intel mounting bracket. It is unfortunate that both mounting hardware are not included, as I am not sure if you can order the Intel mounting hardware separately from Evercool if you were to change to a different brand processor.

The bottom of the block isn't a mirror finish, and has brush marks visible in its surface. Also of note the bottom does come with a protective plastic sheet installed, but I removed it to take this picture.

On the top of the heatsink you can see the top posts from the four heatpipes. We also have the printed name and logo of the Buffalo. Just a side note… I wonder why they have pictures of bulls, but they call it the buffalo?

I wanted to point out the fan clip on the HPFA-10025. It is quite difficult to disengage and engage the clip, but in return it secures the fan very tight against the heatsink. Evercool uses a 100mm fan, but the clip design fits that of a 92mm fan. Most 100mm fans that I have seen have 92mm mounting holes in their frame, so you should be able to find a replacement without any issues should you need to in the future.

Page 5 : Installation

Installation is not always a fun part with installing heatsinks. Whether it's poorly designed clips or a clipping mechanism that requires a bit of muscle, sometimes it can be a dreaded task.

Fortunately Evercool makes the process an absolute breeze. This is quite honestly one of the easiest clips I have used. Just tilt the cooler a bit and attach the fixed side of the clip onto the retention frame.

And to finish it you just engage the other side of the clip and flip the lever. The process took all of 15 seconds to accomplish and didn't require bodybuilder forearms. With some heatsinks it's just not possible to perform the installation with the motherboard still in the case, but with the Buffalo it is no problem whatsoever.

About the only potential compatibility issue I can see would be if you have taller RAM heat spreaders. In my case it really doesn't come close (there is about a 3/4" gap) to the RAM, even so the second bank of memory slots is well clear of the cooler.

Here I have the motherboard installed back in the case and am just about ready to fire it up. One last thing to note about orientation – on my DFI board the retention frame is arranged so that the Buffalo is positioned to push air out the back exhaust of the case. If your heatsink retention frame is oriented the other direction and you do not have a fan in that area to exhaust the heated air, you could see a little higher temps.

Page 6 : Testing

As you saw everything installed on the prior page, here are the specifics of the system I will use for testing:

All of these were tested in a Cooler Master Stacker STC-T01 with stock case fans installed (120mm intake, 120mm exhaust, 80mm blowhole and 120mm in power supply).

For testing I used Folding@Home to run the CPU at 100% and took the average temperature reading over a 1 hour period using Motherboard Monitor 5, recording the temperature every 15 minutes and using the mean temperature recorded over that period of time.

Now it's time to have a look at the results with my 3700+ at stock settings.

At stock settings the Buffalo just edges out the Opteron cooler and is only behind the SI-128 by 2C. With just a two degree difference, the Buffalo is more than holding its own with its lower speed and quieter fan. Now to see what happens when we turn the heat up a bit.

Here the Buffalo pleasantly surprised me, as under load it only falls behind the Thermalright cooler by 3C and beats out the OEM Opteron by 5C. Here it seems that the lower speed fan just falls slightly behind the SI-128 with the higher speed fan, but still quite impressive when you consider the amount of noise that is eliminated by using the Buffalo. The difference in temperaturess could also be negated by the use of a better thermal grease.

Page 7 : Conclusion

Evercool seems to have another winning product on their hands with the HPFA-10025 Buffalo. It is quiet and performs very well against some stiff competition. The style and size of the Buffalo should not cause any compatibility issues with any motherboard I could see. Also with the extreme ease of installation, I would not hesitate to recommend this cooler to even the most novice of users.

While it performed admirably, the Buffalo does have a few minor flaws. The inability to swivel the cooler 90 degrees could affect performance on some setups. Also while most companies these days include mounting brackets for both AMD and Intel platforms, the lack of support for both platforms out of the same box could shy some people away from trying this very good cooler. It may not affect them currently, but if they are trying to squeeze out some life of a current setup, the cooler may not be able to carry over to their newer setup.

With their current foray into the game console cooling market, the Buffalo shows they have not turned a blind eye to PC cooling.

Advantages

• Included fan is quiet

• Good cooling performance
• No compatibility issues
• Easy installation

Disadvantages

• Cooler orientation may not work as well in some setups

• Mounting hardware for only one type of CPU included

Overclockers Online would like to thank Evercool for supplying the HPFA-10025 Buffalo for review.