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, Poiseidon, and other gods. In this case, however, Brontes is a 59mm tall CPU cooler from an 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.
Wait.. this sounds familiar… Very familiar, in fact… This may be due to the Brontes being made by the same company that made the Steropes, a 60mm tall CPU cooler we reviewed just a few days ago! Please don’t call us lazy for copy-pasting the intro! Consistency is important, right?
The Reeven RC-1001 Brontes
| HEATSINK SPECIFICATION | |
|---|---|
| Dimension (with fan) | L105 mm x W114 mm x H98 mm |
| Weight (with fan) | 325 g |
| Heat pipes | Copper heat pipe (x4) |
| Fin Material | Aluminium |
| Mounting plate | Copper nickel plated |
| Replaceable Fan | Yes |
| FAN SPECIFICATION | |
|---|---|
| Dimension | L100 mm x W100 mm x H12 mm |
| Connector | 4 Pin PWM |
| Rated Speed | 650 ~2200 RPM |
| Noise Level | 10.5 – 31.67 dBA |
| Max Air Flow | 11.81 – 30.39 CFM |
| Voltage | 12V |
| Power Consumption | 0.6W |
This product supports Intel LGA-775, LGA1150, LGA1151, LGA1155, LGA1156, and AMD AM2, AM2+, AM3, AM3+, FM1, FM2, FM2+, as well as socket AM1.
[mks_separator style=”blank” height=”2″]
Unboxing
Time for the second part of the Reeven reviews! Today, we are looking at the smaller brother of the pair, named the Brontes.
Slightly shorter than the larger brother, this cooler is a 100mm top-down, measuring 59mm high. That’s a massive 1mm shrink from the Steropes! (Only mild sarcasm is intended by those italics)
Danger, Danger, Will Robinson!! *waves arms wildly*
Meanwhile, on the opposing face, it’s a spec spectacle on this side of the box.
Mechanical drawings, logos, barcodes and web addresses. Woo!
Alright, with that out of the way, let’s tear this box open. Deftly lifting the top flaps, we find that the cooler is immediately visible and well packed, arriving undamaged.
pulling out the accessory box flaking the cooler, we find that the usuals are included – an installation kit, and a printed manual. Similar to the Steropes, the manual contains well-drawn diagrams, and is otherwise clear and well designed.
More yellow! The cooler, with its 100mm fan, is noticeably smaller that the Steropes in the x/y dimensions. However, in case the prior sarcasm wasn’t enough of a hint, it’s actually not much smaller in the height department.
A slightly wonky photo showing off the fan. The fan has very thin blades, not conducive to high static pressure. It will be interesting to explore the performance relative to the bigger brother.
The fan is removable and replaceable, and is mounted with simple wire clips.
Zooming in on the fan, we can see specs! Sleeve bearing! Wait… Sleeve bearing… Sad face :(
Back to the cooler, after we strap the fan back on for the moment. The Brontes certainly shares a similar design aesthetic to the Steropes, with a solid anodised aluminium plate on one end, just like the latter cooler. The Brontes also sports a pair of wire support braces between the fins and the cooler base, to help keep the mass of the cooler well-supported.
As is clear hear, the Brontes relies on a four-heatpipe design. The heatsink base has fins as well, to add to the performance.
Flipping the cooler over, we note that the four mounting screws are (conveniently enough) in the exact same layout as the Steropes (and amusingly, some Scythe coolers!). The two wire fin supports are also more noticeable here.
…And one more shot of those support wires, as well as the fin design. The pins holding the thick end plate in place don’t travel all the way through the cooler. Interesting.
[mks_separator style=”blank” height=”2″]
Installation and Compatibility
Alright, let’s strap this cooler to a board. Right here you have one of two installation styles available to enthusiasts on the AMD platform. In this particular orientation, the cooler overhangs the RAM…
…And is offset from the board – of course, this may cause issues with case compatibility. You’ll want to measure twice.
The good news: PCIe clearance is just fine! (Which cannot be said for the Steropes)
The not so good news: RAM clearance… is, how to put it, vertically challenged? Indeed, only low profile DIMMs would fit in this orientation.
We mentioned two possible orientations, though, so let’s see what happens when we turn the cooler 180 degrees, as is the limitation of the AMD mounting system. To start, PCIe slot clearance is still good!
The wire supports do just hit the VRM heatsink, but with very little pressure. This should be ok.
The RAM certainly appreciates this orientation, as it is wholly unencumbered. Unlimited RAM clearance!
Just to confirm, the PCIe slot is clear. Nice!
[mks_separator style=”blank” height=”2″]
Testing
To test this cooler, we used the SmallFormFactor.net thermal test bench and methodology, as detailed here.
[mks_separator style=”blank” height=”2″]
Results
Overall, the cooler performs very admirably for its size. At full load, it performs mid-field, but given the generally quiet performance (and lack of any adverse aural characteristics), that’s actually pretty commendable.
At 12V, the cooler performs a bit better, at the expense of a rather whiney, loud fan. At that point a larger cooler probably makes more sense, if the modest performance improvement is the biggest priority.
[mks_separator style=”blank” height=”2″]
Conclusion
All-in-all, this is quite a nice cooler from Reeven, showing that even the newer players on the market can give more established names a bit of a challenge. I really do like the design and execution of the Reeven products we have looked at this week (minus the yellow fan blades, but I digress!), and believe they would fit an industrial or heavy metal SFF build quite well. Performance isn’t revolutionary, but it meets the bar set by others and does so with a well-designed kit.
Reeven has brought some quality products to the market, and we hope to see some more from them soon, if only to provide some competition to the dominant market players.
Pros
- Quality build
- Great aesthetics
- Good performance
Cons
- Yellow fan
- A little louder than preferred at full speed
[mks_separator style=”blank” height=”2″]
The Reeven Brontes is available for around US$36.00 on NewEgg.com
[mks_separator style=”blank” height=”2″]
Thoughts? Discuss them in the forum.
[mks_separator style=”blank” height=”2″]
Review sample provided by Reeven.
Here at SmallFormFactor.net we give manufacturers the ability to be part of the community. We offer a right to reply to hardware reviews. If a manufacturer responds, their comments will be posted here.
