Cooling [SFF Network] Reeven Steropes – One Eye Towards Performance

[confusis]

In Greek mythology, Steropes, Brontes and Arges are three siblings decended from Gaia and Uranus (stop giggling, you in the back). They were the blacksmiths to Zeus, Poseidon, and other gods. In this case, however, Steropes is a 60mm tall CPU cooler from a relatively unknown brand – Reeven.

REEVEN is a newly established international manufacturer of PC related products. REEVEN’s product lines include the best quality of advanced CPU coolers, cooling fans, PC cases and many other items. The target of our products will be a wide range of audiences under our philosopohy “Professional Quality Gears”, for products that will withstand the highest demands.


Read more here.

 

[Phuncz]

Interesting new contender in the heatsink market, some new SFF cooling options are very welcome !

 

[K888D]

This looks like similar design concept to the Scythe Big Shuriken 2, where the large heats sink is lifted away from the motherboard by the heat pipes leaving a nice airflow path around the whole motherboard.

 

[jtd871]

Reeven's been around for a while. SPCR tested their Vanxie cooler years back. http://www.silentpcreview.com/Scythe_BigShuriken2B_Reeven_Vanxie

 

[confusis]

first time i have come across them, they aren't retailed in any online I frequent

 

[fminus]

How can the author write:

For the first cooler we have seen from Reeven, I am very impressed.

Yet the thing blocks the PCIE Slot regardless of orientation.
Is louder than expected.
Heatpipes touch the VRM heatsink

Eh...I am not getting what is impressive here.

 

[Phuncz]

The orientation and VRM heatsink are board-dependent so it will be different from motherboard to motherboard.

This is an board @confusis used in his review I believe:

This is another board from the same manufacturer:

And this is why with SFF builds, you ALWAYS have to do research on your components, like which cooler on which motherboard fits how, or if a CPU is too high in power consumption to be cooled silently or which case allows the cooler to extend past the motherboard. Still, if there performance of the cooler is above average with the price in mind, but it makes more noise, it's still can be a good product, just not good in every aspect. But what I can tell from the review graph, it performs quite well, with performance not trailing far from the dual-fan version of the Noctua NH-L12.

I recently bought a cooler that was cheap, noisy, low build quality and has a crappy performance. Now that is what I would call unimpressive or just plain bad.

 

[confusis]

How can the author write:



Yet the thing blocks the PCIE Slot regardless of orientation.
Is louder than expected.
Heatpipes touch the VRM heatsink

Eh...I am not getting what is impressive here.

I have seen coolers from well established manufacturers fall apart in the box, have poor base quality, or have had bad mounting hardware.

Phuncz has cleared up the mounting issues. My test platform is deliberately a challenge to fit coolers on to exhibit a worst case example.