P4 Cooling in the Prescott Era

With the introduction of the flaming hot 90nm Prescott core, Intel has gone and pulled a switcheroo on us all by releasing the hottest major CPU chip on the market. Conventional wisdom no longer holds in terms of AMD chips running hotter by default than the competing P4 variant. As such the P4 cooling market has just changed from the relatively mundane to altogether important.

On top of the game

Fortunately many manufacturers have felt the winds of change a-blowing and were prepared with Prescott capable coolers. One of those manufacturers was Spire, whose CoolWave cooler we'll be looking at today. Founded in 1991, Spire has been heavy into the worldwide computer thermal solutions market since '98 and has production facilities all over the world.

The cooler we'll be looking at today is Spire's CoolWave SP441B0-F.

The Coolwave is listed as "Prescott Ready" up to 3.4Ghz. The following is a quick run down of features, a complete list can be found at Spire's website.

Model No.: SP441B0-F
CPU Socket: 478
Rated Voltage: 12V
Rated Current: 0.08 ~ 0.30A
Power Consumption: 0.96 ~ 3.60W
Bearing Type: Ball Bearing
Fan Speed: 2500 ~ 4200 RPM
Fan Dimensions: 70x70x25mm
Airflow: 19.3 ~ 34.6 CFM
Noise Level: 23.5 ~ 34.5 dB(A)
Outline Dimensions: 84x70x18.9mm
Life Time: 50,000hrs

The package includes a very small and to the point multi language user manual, as well as a tube of the generic white thermal paste and an optional rear PCI bracket fan controller. The retention clips are attached to the blue 70mm fan (something I prefer as opposed to the loose, easily lost ones) which is topped with Spire's patented fan grill.  Installation was a breeze and the braided 3pin fan wire was a nice aesthetic touch.

Hold Me Closer Tiny Dancer...

The heatsink itself is VERY low profile. Here it is next to the stock HSF that came with an FIC Iceberg SFF case and the Spire is actually considerably lower. 

Whether or not this is important to you depends on whether or not you own a SFF as there are unfortunately not many low profile coolers able to handle the Prescott core as of yet (for example the FIC stock cooler from the Icebox SFF series).

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