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Spire KestrelKing VI CPU Cooler


Date
: 06/23/05 – 01:26:15 AM

Author
:

Category
: Cooling

Page 1 : Introduction

Manufacturer
: Spire

Price
: $21.95 (Street)

A company that many enthusiasts are not very familiar with is Spire. Founded in 1991, they have production facilities in China, corporate offices in the US, and branches in The Netherlands, UK, Germany, France, Taiwan, Japan and Brazil.

With such a large presence around the world, Spire has introduced products ranging from system cooling to computer cases and power supplies.

Today, Overclockers Online will take a look at Spire's KestrelKing VI, an AMD64 performance CPU air-cooler.

Page 2 : Package/Specifications

The KestrelKing VI was packaged in a small retail box, which had a very appealing design to me.

Inside the box was the KestrelKing VI and a small tube of thermal grease.

Main Features

- 70x70x25mm Temperature controlled fan for efficient noise control
- Ball bearing fan for extended product life-time
- Copper based stamped Micro-Fin heat-sink design for optimal heat conductivity
- Supports all new K8 Athlon & Sempron micro-processors

Technical Specifications

Socket 754 / 940 / 939 Cooling kit
Dimensions
Heat sink : 107×80×60 mm (l × w × h)
12VDC Fan : 70×70×25 mm
Bearing
Ball bearing
Rated speed
3050 ~ 6000 RPM +/-10%
Rated power
2.40 W
Noise level
21.0 ~ 40.0 dBA
Air flow
21.3 CFM at 3,050 RPM
41.9 CFM at 6,000 RPM
Current
0.20 ~ 0.40 A
Life hours
Ball: 50.000
Features
Easy install and remove system, Copper base, Stamped fin technology, Temperature control & Auto restart
Connector
3 Pin, mainboard
Application
AMD : Athlon 64 ~ 4000+ (K8)
Athlon 64 FX-51 (K8)
Athlon 64 FX-53 (K8)
Athlon 64 FX-55 (K8)
Opteron ~ 850 (K8)
Sempron ~ 3100+ (K8)
Thermal resistance
0.309 °C/W
Thermal type
Stars-420 white grease (Injection tube)

Let's get a closer look at the KestrelKing VI.

Page 3 : Closer Look

The fan on the KestrelKing as stated in the last section is a variable speed fan, ranging from 3050 RPM to 6000 RPM, pushing anywhere between 21.3 CFM's and 41.9 CFM's, of course at a cost of noise from 21 dBA to 40 dBA.

The back of the fan reveals the manufacturer

If we move on to the heatsink, it has a solid copper base with aluminum fins. The fin density is pretty impressive on this budget cooler.

The KestrelKing VI uses a 3 pin plug, which directly plugs onto the motherboard. Spire took the time to wrap the fan's wires, and make it look very clean. A big plus on Spire's side for that!

On the other hand, turning the KestrelKing VI over reveals not such a great finish on the copper base…

Let's move on and take a look at the installation and testing of the KestrelKing VI

Page 4 : Installation/Testing

The inside flap to the box contained directions about installing the heatsink, however they are not even all necessary. The KestrelKing VI was built as a stock AMD heatsink replacement. This means the KestrelKing will mount directly on to the same bracketing equipment AMD uses to hold their stock heatsink on! This is great because it does not require the removal of the motherboard, plus it's quick and painless!

In my case, I had to remove the motherboard anyway, to put my stock brackets back on, the KestrelKing VI does come with a bracket in case you do not have your stock AMD one.

After applying some thermal paste, we will now bring together the KestrelKing VI and my AMD 3000+ in cooling matrimony.

Once the heatsink is sat into place, a simple flip of the lever and it is locked down.

The KestrelKing VI is now installed, let's check out to see how well it performs.

The test system used was:

AMD Athlon64 3000+ (Socket 754) @ 2.2ghz, 1.5v vcore
Epox 8KDA3J
XFX Geforce 6600GT
512mb Corsair Value Select
Thermaltake 480watt PSU
Aerocool Spiral Galaxies Case (1x120mm fan intake, 1x120mm exhaust)

The ambient temperature during these tests ranged slightly from 73F to 75F (22.7C – 23.8C).

To do the testing, we'll do the standard Idle/Load temperatures. The idle was standard, let the computer sit for an hour. Load temperatures were attained by using Prim95 until the temps capped off. The temperatures were gathered by using SpeedFan

And drum roll please…

Although the temperatures are not amazingly impressive, it is a budget cooler. And these are about what the stock heatsink is running. Overall, the fan on the heatsink is reasonably quiet, starting at just 21.0 dBA, odds are it will be one of the quietest fans in your case, as it was for me, quieter than the 2x120mm fans I had.

Page 5 : Conclusion

The Spire KestrelKing VI is what it was meant to be, a decent budget cooler. Something as simple as sanding down the copper base to a higher grit should improve it's temperatures, which it is surprising Spire did not do this in the factory. Features like the automatic variable speed fan, and the sleeved fan wires are nice touches.

Overall this budget cooler is just that, a budget heatsink. I would think of it more as a stock heatsink replacement, as it has very comparable cooling. If you're looking for budget cooler with mediocre performance but doesn't require removing the entire motherboard for installation, the Spire KestrelKing VI is your cooler.

Positives
- Clean, professional look (not flashy or overpowering)
- Decent cooling power
- Very easy installation

Negatives
- Cooling could be better (higher grit sanding on the base for starters)

Overclockers Online would like to thank Spire for providing this sample.