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Final Words
In my time as a reviewer here at VL, it's been rare that I've come across anything really bad, with the majority of products I've seen being of decent quality. It would seem that I've once again been lucky in looking at the Aero7 which has quite frankly exceeded any expectations I had about its performance. I never for one second actually thought it would best the current line up of heatsinks I have on hand but it has, with temperature differing by 4C less at both idle and load compared to the X-Dream, which was no slouch in my opinion. This is not to say there isn't better performing setups out there, because there is, but looking at the overall product, it's noise compared to performance, it is impressive in its own right.
I did expect it to be a rather ugly setup, and whilst I wouldn't call it a work of art, it is far from being aesthetically unpleasing to see in person. The copper heatsink has good solid feel to it, and isn't overly heavy to make me worry about weight on a ZIF Socket. I'm pleased to see that have once again used the very easy idea of a thumb lever on the clip, making for a quick install. The unit attaches solidly to the socket thanks to the 6 lug clip approach.
The fan being of the radial design, whilst not a new idea (the Noise Control Silverado comes to mind), works very well negating the deadzone in the centre of the heatsink found in traditional axial fan setups and allowing the air to circulate the entire 'sink. I like the frosted clear look of the fan assembly plastic, and my instant reaction was it would look pretty good with a few blue LED's thrown into it. I'll certainly be on the look out for any pictures anyone has of this if someone does do this. As introduced with the X-Dream, the Aero7 also has adjustable fan speeds, allowing you to dial in your preference of performance and noise. I for one am glad to see that Coolermaster saw fit to include not only a PCI slot to mount the speed dial onto, but also a 3 ½ inch bay cover as well (of the brushed aluminium variety of course), allowing you to take control of the fan speed from either the rear or the front of the case as the end user see's fit.
The combination of the skived copper, the radial fan assembly and the best of both worlds approach to fan speeds (and noise) make for a great product overall, and in my testing this combination seems to have paid off. This is one of those reviews where I have basically installed it, took the first few readings and said to myself " &. That can't be right &..". I had to go back and make doubly sure of the readings in comparison with the other HSF's just to make sure in my own mind that the results were infact correct. The only downside I can see to this is that the radial fan makes the entire unit quite tall, just over an inch taller than your average HSF.
If you're looking to put this into a cramped case such as a desktop, you will most likely have to look elsewhere, but as bad points go that's it, and even then that is something that won't affect a lot of users. Thanks to for letting us look at the Aero7 HSF.
Pros
Interesting Radial Fan design negates the 'deadzone'
All copper, skived approach
Great performance
Adjustable fan speed
PCI slot and 3 ½ inch bay mount for dial included
Overall solid and quality feel
Cons
It's an inch taller than your average setup
Bottom Line
If you're looking for a great performing HSF with an interesting twist that'll make your friends say "what the &." then take a look at this one. A very nice combination of features that provides the end user with a quality product.
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Cooler Master Aero 7 Socket-A: Cooler Master kicks out a new AMD cooler, which uses a different kind of fan than most people are accustomed to. The performance of the package was quite surprising.
