Spire Thermax Eclipse II

[wuttz]

SPIRE THERMAX ECLIPSE II

It's got good performance reviews, performance is excellent, and comes highly recommended by pretty much all the reviewers out there. And that's where I take issue with reviewers. Taking money or products in exchange for recommendations.
Can't say it only happens with air coolers. *Stares at CPU "reviews."*

Here's the nitty gritty about this air cooler that these reviewers don't tell you, or otherwise say it in less unattractive tones;

1. The rubber fan mounts are a majorly dumb design. I mean, it does work, but only halfway. What do I mean? The rubber fan mounts do not securely fasten the fans to the cooler. It goes only halfway in, and if pushed all the way in, the other side falls out!!

The cheap rubber mounts barely keeps the fans attached;

If you push it all the way in for security, the other end pops out since cooler is shorter than the fan holes;

2. Securely fastening the ~800g cooler to the motherboard means there are stresses on the mounting components involved, right? After all, you have to have sufficient surface contact between the CPU and the HDT pipes for effective heat dissipation.

There are four motherboard mounting bolts with nuts/spring assembly provided for that. The mounting plate and motherboard assembly appear to work and does secure the two together;

But here's the sore part, look at what fastens the mounting plate to the ~800g air cooler.

Two minute screws, with wide threading(like in wood screws), and are very soft, probably 80% lead!!

This one was sheared while I was loosening it off!
An overtightened small screw from the factory actually sheared when loosened off! Very. Bad. Quality.

There is a notch at the base that should support and help with the compression between the base and the cpu-hsf, but would you really trust these two wide-thread(wood screw?) bolts to hold the ~800g air cooler and mounting plate together while being stressed with as much as ~60lbf of static pressure-mounting force??

I wouldn't! Chinese engineers need to do better designs! And the price of this air cooler is ~$65.00! For that price I expect better build quality!

3. Lastly, can anyone tell me what happens when you have cheap, flimsy product packaging? Not to mention that there is NO security seal; hence no way to tell if you are getting a used product or if all the accessories inside haven't been lost? Well, as for poor packaging, this happens: http://db.tt/tvK9imv

Here's the plastic protector packaging that doesn't protect the product;

The only protector that actually protects is probably this one;
link<

So, there goes your CONS for this product, which ultimately left me with a very bad experience with the Spire brand.
They even use the same two small screws for their new Gemini cooler.

The quality of a product is only as good as the quality of its individual parts.
The biggest defect I found in this cooler are those two small screws.
Spire should use a wider-diameter bolt with metal-threading that can withstand higher shear stresses.
It's good they fixed the bad fan mounting on their new product, the Gemini, but the weak link(two small screws) remain.

Hope this helps anyone out there looking for information on the Thermax.

 

[Technikal]

Thanks for the heads up, I was considering this cooler. This cooler got the highest ratings on Frosty Tech but not much talk of the mounting though. The lousy mounts remind me of Scythe mounting setups which are really cheap. Nice coolers, lousy mounting. Meh most computer hardware comes out of just a handful OEMs anyway they all look so similar now days.

Your right though I think most review sites are paid off, deals made or "reviewers" bribed. It's just the way it is..not all and not all the time..but most, most of the time. Welcome to the Internet. Accountability = zero.

 

[Kranium]

I have this cooler and it performs quite well for me. The fan mounting is deffinately a sore point but that's the only part I've had an issue with and it's been a non-issue in the long run, not like the fans have fallen off or anything. Plus I pushed the rubber mounts all the way in which makes them form a < shape that I think centers the fans and allows less movement.

 

[StewieTheGreat]

I agree with the wuttz.good performance,shitty service and QC.


I have this cooler and while the performance is great,I am ditching it for something else when I upgrade,like you said the build quality was shit,trying to install this thing was a nightmare since one the the spacers that go on the long bolt was not threaded so was useless,the fan mounting not so much of an issue,shitty design but works,I have never had a fan fall off the heatsink and have been running it for over a year.

However I did have a fan fly out of its housing and land on top of my video card,I contacted spire to see if they would send me a new fan,I sent them pics of the fan laying on my card with the housing attached to the heatsink,then they asked for pics of the center of the fan hub itself and I never heard from them again.