Temperatures
The voltage for the CPU is running much higher than it needs to for this particular overclock simply to produce more heat and make the test as tough as possible for the coolers. In the case of the stock Intel heat-sink, it’s simply too much heat. The recorded temperature in the graph below indicates the temperature I stopped testing at. Any higher than this caused the PC to lock up. Because the voltage is so high, you can very likely achieve much better results with the coolers in this test yourself.
CPU Temperature in Celcius, lower is better
We’ve included all the coolers we’ve tested to date (at this ambient temperature) on this test setup and it’s interesting to see the results of the Evercool Transformer 3. Whilst this is not a small cooler, going by the larger than average third party coolers of late, the Evercool Transformer 3 is not a big cooler either. It does however do rather well. In idle temps, it easily keeps up with the big boys, and actually out performs its larger brother the Transformer 4 Plus.
Under load, despite its size, it still puts in a great performance. We never saw temperatures above 60 under load, which while no where near as good as the temperatures of some of the larger coolers, is still pretty good for it’s size.
Noise
All the above temperature results were taken while running the fans at maximum. This does tend to make many of the coolers a little loud, but running day to day with PWM, the Evercool Transformer 3 makes not much more noise than your average case fan. Keeping with PWM, the temperatures don’t alter all the much either, so there shouldn’t be any need for you to alter the fan speeds yourself; just leave it on automatic.
Final Words
This is the second review we’ve done, and only my second experience with an product and I have to say that I really like the . It’s not as large as some coolers out there, and as a result it’s not going to perform as well, but it for it’s size it does perform rather well.
have painted the included 120mm fan in silver to match the rest of the heatsink. The fan is also of an interesting design in that it uses more blades than usual with a curling of the blades too. This helps prevent noise and provide a good amount of air movement. The fan is mounted with rubber clips directly on to the heatsink fins which should help prevent any vibration. The overall noise level is very acceptable with a level just above your average case fan. supply enough fan mounts that you could use an additional 120mm fan for a Push-Pull configuration should you so wish.
Whilst the is not the biggest cooler out there, it is constructed in a quality fashion; it doesn’t feel flimsy or cheap in your hands. The base features a DirectTouch design, or to put that into plain English, the heat-pipes make direct contact with the CPU. The heat-pipes and the surrounding aluminum base are nicely machined, with no gaps between them.
The requires some assembly out-of-the-box, and the reason for this becomes apparent when you install the cooler … especially if you don’t follow the instructions like me. You will need to install the heatsink sans the fan first, and then you can mount the fan with it’s rubber clips afterwards. It can make it a little fiddly but it’s not a frustrating installation. Indeed the heatsink itself uses thumbscrews to attach to your motherboard; you can’t get much easier than that. You will require access to the rear of your motherboard though.
The is a more modest cooler in size compared to what we have come to expect of late, which is quite nice. It will certainly lend itself to more enclosures. I’d like to comment on the price, but I don’t have one, nor can I find the for sale currently. I don’t expect it to be overly expensive, and it wouldn’t surprise me if it turned out to be quite cheap and therefore a bit of a bargain.
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