INTRODUCTION

   AIO liquid cooling systems may have started to surpass regular CPU air coolers in popularity even among consumers with small PC cases (120/140mm models) but for the ones with really tight budgets it will probably be a long time before these solutions become a standard part of their builds. Of course the industry is well aware of this and so we don't see quite as many CPU air coolers being developed and released lately but still there are more than just enough models out there to cover pretty much every single consumer in the market today. REEVEN may be one of the newest companies in the PC cooling industry but they've already released quite a few interesting models including the very good Okeanos dual-heatsink CPU cooler which we reviewed a while back. Today and after quite a few of you asked we're going to be testing their latest top-down flagship model called the Steropes.

   REEVEN is a newly established international manufacturer of PC related products. REEVEN’s product lines include the best quality of advanced CPU coolers, Cooling Fans, PC Cases and many other items. The target of our products will be a wide range of audience under our philosophy “Professional Quality Gears”, for products that will withstand the highest demand.

   The Steropes took its name from Greek Mythology and more specifically from one of the three one-eyed Cyclopes who were sons to Gaia and Uranus and brothers to the Titans. According to Hesiod Steropes could control lightning and along with his two brothers crafted the weapon which gave the ability to control lightning bolts (and thunderbolts) to Zeus after he saved them from their imprisonment in Tartarus by their brother Cronus (as a Greek these were some of the stories i heard from a very early age). With this out of the way the REEVEN Steropes is a C-Type (top-down) CPU cooler that features a total of five 6mm all-copper nickel plated heatpipes and gets shipped with an 120mm high-RPM low-profile PWM fan. With a height of just 60mm with the fan the Steropes may not be the largest top-down CPU cooler in the market today but it's not the smallest one either so let's see just what kind of cooling efficiency you can expect from it.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

A large product picture and a list of compatible sockets are placed ontop of the box.

The specifications table is placed at the rear of the box in 7 languages.

Some drawings of the product are placed on the right side and are used to showcase its dimensions.

A few words about the product along with another picture are placed at the front of the box.

REEVEN cautions users to read the installation instructions (among other things) on the left side.

The bundle is quite standard so aside the Steropes low-profile CPU cooler you're also getting a small pouch with thermal conductive material, installation instructions, 8 screws, 4 rubber washers and several brackets for installation on Intel LGA 775/1150/1151/1155/1156/1366 and AMD AM2/AM2+/AM3/AM3+/FM1/FM2/FM2+/AM1 compatible mainboards.

THE STEROPES

The Steropes is a low-profile top-down CPU cooler that weighs 470g and measures 125mm in width, 129mm in depth and just 60mm in height with the fan installed.

REEVEN has engraved their logo at the front of the cooler and i have to admit i liked that touch.

The 120mm 15 blade PWM fan is just 12mm in height so as we've seen numerous times in the past from such models it could get noisy at load.

This is a sleeve bearing fan that can spin up to 2000RPM to produce up to 45.47CFM of airflow with 1.34mm H2O of air pressure and 33.7dBA of noise.

The main body of the Steropes has a total of 73 aluminum fins and we also see that there's a small heatsink ontop of its base.

There are 5 all-copper nickel plated 6mm heatpipes that leave the base of the Steropes and pass through all of its fins (the center three are bend again and return to three grooves placed at the bottom of the fins).

The all-copper nickel plated base of the Steropes is polished but doesn’t feature a mirror-like reflection.

TEST BED

TESTING METHODOLOGY

   As we have stated in the past the Intel I7-3770k system is not placed in our lab and so it's obviously not our primary choice when testing CPU Coolers. Still since HTPC oriented models shouldn’t be used with our overclocked Core I7-3930k we have decided to take this path whenever one such model lands at our doorstep. As always our first concern is ambient temperatures so once again we keep the room temperature to around 21-23 degrees (not really hard but unfortunately not 100% accurate as in our lab) and as always to successfully record the load temperatures we use the latest OCCT application (for around 6-10 minutes) to push the processor to its limits so we can record its temperatures. After that is done we wait for about 10-20 minutes for the CPU to cool down and record the idle temperatures. This is done to allow time for the thermal conductive material to achieve the optimal performance level. Same procedure was then repeated with the Passmark BurnIn Test as a failsafe just in case the OCCT results were off. As many of you have pointed out time and again this procedure takes a lot more time than the usual peltier/thermometer tests but this way not only can we deliver real world results based on real CPUs but we can also triple check the results using a variety of programs. Last but not least the temperatures are recorded using both the latest versions of AIDA64 and RealTemp while the noise level tests are performed using a high precision ExTech HD600 Decibel Meter placed about 10-15cm above the CPU Cooler.

TEST RESULTS

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CONCLUSION

   REEVEN has managed to gain popularity because of their quality and high-performance CPU coolers so when the Steropes arrived in our lab I knew it wouldn’t fail us and it didn’t. I was a bit disappointed to see that it lacked support for LGA2011/3 mainboards like many other top-down models have but since I too agree that these shouldn’t be used to cool such high-end CPUs I understand why REEVEN chose this path (Scythe did the exact same thing with their Shuriken Rev.B). I was also surprised to see that the Steropes is just 60mm in height and yet manages to compete with other larger coolers straight on but unfortunately with over 52dBA at load the 120mm 2000RPM fan is far from the quietest used in such a cooler (but it makes sense that REEVEN would use a high-RPM fan to catch up with other similar models).

   Currently the Steropes by REEVEN retails for USD39 inside the USA (Newegg.com) and for around 32Euros inside the EU so it’s what we’d all call affordable. Unfortunately availability is far from good since we just managed to track it down in 4 online stores in the USA and EU so we sincerely hope REEVEN can do something about it since even if you do like it you may not be able to get one. That being said the Steropes is a very good top-down CPU cooler with noise levels as its only drawback and that’s why it gets our Golden Award.

PROS

- Good Build Quality
- Low-Profile (60mm In Height)
- Good Cooling Efficiency
- Socket Compatibility
- Price (For Some)

CONS

- Noise Levels
- Current Availability