14 DAY TRIAL // It appears that video card makers aren't the only ones that are putting their special touches on their devices, as Spire made good on its name and designed a fairly unique-looking CPU cooler.
When talking about active CPU coolers, one immediately thinks of those metal heatsinks, backed by a cooler and, in some cases, assisted by heatpipes.
Basically, air coolers rely on a airflow in order to disperse caloric energy, each model featuring its own advantages and downsides.
In this case, Spire did something that can definitely be classified as unusual, namely shape the heatsink itself as though it were a seashell or snail's carapace.
This spiral pattern lies at the basis of its name, Swirl, and plays a pivotal role in the cooling prowess capable of handling both Intel and AMD CPUs.
To be more specific, the product (priced at $52.99 / 36.99 Euro and backed by a five-year warranty) can cool Intel socket LGA 775, LGA 1156 and LGA 1366 central processing units, as well as AM2, AM3, 940 and 939 CPUs from Advanced Micro Devices.
For those that want to know specifics, there are 45 aluminum fins, plus three copper heatpipes with a thickness of 8mm each and shaped like a U.
Speaking of the heatpipes, they are nickel-plated and transfer the heat from the chip to the aforementioned heatsink, leaving it to the fan to disperse it.
Speaking of the fan, it has a diameter of 60mm (is of the ball bearing variety) and has a rotary speed of 800 to 2,000 RPM (rotations per minute). This leaves its noise output at 19 to 31 dBA.
The Swirl will benefit from the BlueFrost thermal grease, which is bundled with it, and users will be able to directly control the fan speed, based on noise and temperature preferences, by means of a PCI fan controller.