Introduction

Today we are going to test another low-cost CPU cooler, Evercool HPH-9525EA, which has a horizontal heatsink, three heatpipes and a 95-mm fan with blue LEDs. Let's check its performance!

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Figure 1: Evercool HPH-9525EA.

In the next pages we will see this cooler in detail.

Evercool HPH-9525EA

In Figure 2 we can see the cooler from the front. It has a small aluminum base and the heatsink stays over it, but not touching it.

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Figure 2: Front view.

In Figure 3 we have a side view of HPH-9525EA. Note the heatpipes and the gap between the base and the heatsink.

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Figure 3: Side view.

Evercool HPH-9525EA (Cont'd)

In Figure 4 we have a rear view of HPH-9525EA, where we can see how the heatpipes are distributed.

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Figure 4: Rear view.

In Figure 7 we see the other side of the cooler.

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Figure 5: Side view.

In Figure 6 we see the base of the cooler. Heatpipes keep direct contact with the CPU and the surface has no mirror-like finishing.

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Figure 6: Base.

Installation

In Figure 9, you can see the HPH-9525EA holding system, which is identical to the Intel stock system. It only supports socket 775 CPUs. Note how the surface from the heatpipes (that stays in contact with the CPU) has some dents, which can spoil the thermal contact with the CPU.

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Figure 7: Socket 775 pegs.

In Figure 10 we see the cooler installed in our case. It is small and did not interfere with any motherboard component.

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Figure 8: Installed in case.

In Figure 11 we can see the cooler in use. The strong blue glow from the fan LEDs is one of the strong points of this cooler, looking just great inside the case.

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Figure 9: Fan glow.

How We Tested

We are adopting the following methodology for our CPU cooler reviews.

First, we chose the CPU with the highest TDP (Thermal Design Power) we had available, a Core 2 Extreme QX6850, which has a 130 W TDP. The choice for a CPU with a high TDP is obvious. To measure the efficiency of the tested cooler, we need a processor that gets very hot. This CPU works by default at 3.0 GHz, but we overclocked it to 3.33 GHz, in order to heat it as much as possible.

We took noise and temperature measurements with the CPU idle and under full load. In order to achieve 100% CPU load on the four processing cores we ran Prime95 with the "In-place Large FFTs" option, and three instances of the StressCPU program, all at the same time.

We also compared the reviewed cooler to the Intel stock cooler (with copper base), which comes with the processor we used, and also with some other coolers we have tested using the same methodology.

Temperature measurements were taken with a digital thermometer, with the sensor touching the base of the cooler, and also with the core temperature reading (given by the CPU thermal sensor) from the from the SpeedFan program, using an arithmetic average of the four core temperature readings.

The sound pressure level (SPL) was measured with a digital noise meter, with its sensor placed 4" (10 cm) from the fan. We turned off the video board cooler so it wouldn't interfere with the results, but this measurement is only for comparative purposes, because a precise SPL measurement needs to be made inside an acoustically insulated room with no other noise sources, which is not the case here.

Hardware Configuration

• Processor: Core 2 Extreme QX6850
• Motherboard: Gigabyte EP45-UD3L
• Memory: 2 GB Corsair XMS2 DHX TWIN2X2048-6400C4DHX G (DDR2-800/PC2-6400 with timings 4-4-4-12), running at 800 MHz
• Hard drive: 1 TB Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 (ST31000528AS, SATA-300, 7200 rpm, 32 MB buffer)
• Video card: PNY Verto Geforce 9600 GT
• Video resolution: 1680x1050
• Video monitor: Samsung Syncmaster 2232BW Plus
• Power supply required: Seventeam ST-550P-AM
• Case: 3RSystem K100
  

Software Configuration

• Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit
  

Software Used

• Prime95
• StressCPU
• SpeedFan

Error Margin

We adopted a 2 ^oC error margin, i.e., temperature differences below 2 ^oC are considered irrelevant.

Our Tests

On the tables below you can see our results. We ran the same tests with the coolers shown on below tables. Each test ran with the CPU idle and the with the CPU fully loaded. On BigTyp 14Pro, TMG IA1, NH-U12P and ISGC-300 the tests were done with the fan at full speed and at minimum speed. The other coolers were connected directly to the motherboard and it controls the fan speed based on CPU load level and temperature on PWM models. ISGC-400, iCEAGE Prima Boss and Megahalems Rev. B were tested at minimum speed on idle test and at maximum speed on full load test.

The next graph shows how many degrees Celsius the CPU core was hotter than room temperature during our idle tests.

The next graph gives you an idea on how many degrees Celsius the CPU core was hotter than room temperature during our full load tests.

 

Main Specifications

Evercool HPH-9525EA main features are:

• Application: Socket 775 processors.
• Fins: Aluminum.
• Base: Aluminum, with heatpipes in direct contact with the CPU.
• Heat-pipes: Three 6-mm copper heat-pipes.
• Fan: 95 mm.
• Nominal fan speed: 1,800 rpm.
• Fan air flow: Not informed.
• Maximum power consumption: Not informed.
• Nominal noise level: 20 dBA.
• Weight: 1.06 lbs (480 g).
• More information: http://www.evercool.com.tw
• Average price in the US*: USD 17.29

* Researched on www.newegg.com on the day this review was published.

Conclusions

Evercool HPH-9525EA is a cheap cooler with a great looks and low performance.

Its transparent fan with four high-intensity blue LEDs gives a very "cool" aspect to the computer, if you have a transparent side window in your case, of course. The installation is easy and the cooler does not interfere with motherboard components.

But that's we can say about HPH-9525EA. Unfortunately its performance is too low for it to be uses with a high-TDP processor, especially if you are planning to overclock it. It simply could not handle our CPU, reseting the system after some minutes under full load. It is really a shame that a cooler with that nice looks shows such poor performance.