Introduction

We would like to thank Evercool for supplying the review sample.

Features:

• Four 6 mm thick heatpipes, and heatpipe-direct touch (HDT) for high cooling efficiency
• Supports Intel Core i7 LGA1366 and LGA775 Processors
• 100 mm high air-flow, ultra-quiet fan

Compatibility:

• Intel LGA1366, LGA775

Specifications:

Package and Contents

Evercool HPK-10025EA comes in a plastic tray that can be stacked and hung in racks, thanks to the compact and light-weight nature of the cooler it's carrying. Thankfully, the two halves aren't sealed by melting the plastic, rather, they're locked in place using four circle-square locks, that makes the package resusable. Had it been a molten-seal, you'll find yourself angrily hacking away with scissors or blades. This packaging also gives a good view of the top-portion of the cooler, which is dominated with the custom-designed 100 mm fan, a small portion revealing the four heat pipes, and the jagged edges of the aluminum fins.

The front half doesn't display much product information other than company and product logos, supported CPU types, and certifications. The top line abstractly reads "Core i7 and P4 LGA775", but we would like to remind you that this particular cooler supports LGA1366 Core i7 processors and LGA775 processors. It should support most LGA775 chips apart from Pentium 4, including Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad, as TDP of those chips generally aren't rated above 95W. The rear half is where the action is, where the lid protrudes out in a cuboidal shape, acting as a tray for the lower-portion of the cooler. Listed here are supported CPU types in greater detail, key features of the cooler, four images showing them, and an adequately detailed specifications table.


As soon as you open the clam-shell tray, you can pull out the cooler without any hassle. It will then reveal a lower deck in the tray that holds the accessories. The upper deck can be easily pulled out. In the accessories compartment, you'll find each kind of accessory (nuts, bolts, washers) packed into a ziplock sachet of its own, the thermal paste syringe is packed into a plastic shell. The inner side of the paperboard that displays specifications on the back of the package, doubles up to serve as an installation guide, complete with color pictures. A very nice touch. Overall, full-marks for Evercool's packaging.

A closer look

The Evercool HPK-10025EA is a low-profile heatsink, but it's also technically a small-sized aluminum fin tower. It's just that the tower propagates parallel to the plane of the motherboard, rather than perpendicular to it (like on conventional tower-type heatsinks). This is what separates it from the low-profile (specifications-compliant) heatsinks that Intel and AMD pack with their retail desktop processors.

The cooler is structured into three "layers", if you will. The lowest is the CPU block, which doubles up as a tiny heatsink on its own (more in the "base" section below); from here four heat pipes that make direct contact with the CPU, proceed in a single file, curve, and pass through the dense aluminum fin array, which is our second layer. On top of everything is the 100 mm custom designed fan, which blows air through the fin array, and onto the base heatsink and the area of the motherboard surrounding the CPU socket. Residual air ends up cooling some of the CPU VRM.


The best part about the HPK-1002EA is that most of the cooler comes pre-assembled. The fan is already latched onto the heatsink using metal clips. The fan is almost frame-less and instead uses four pillars that converge at the center, where the fan's motor is suspended. The pillars along with a plastic ring act as a sort of a grill.

The 7-blade impeller with its rather steep blades are designed to sweep in air with minimum noise. Like most sensible fan designers, Evercool is aiming for a high RPM to air-flow ratio. It's going to be a challenge, since at 100 mm, it is smaller than the average 120 mm fan size, and has to be fast in order to make up for its shorter blades. The fan makes use of tough ABS plastic. One big setback here is that the fan uses a 3-pin power input, instead of 4-pin. This means that you have to make do with voltage/resistance-based fan-control methods, not PWM.


The HPK-10025EA uses four 6 mm thick heat pipes, which are made of exposed copper. Since it lacks protective nickel plating, it might face corrosion over time, but that's a very slow process, and depends on the kind of TIM you're using apart from other factors such as humidity in your area. I wouldn't worry too much about that.


The business end of the cooler, the base is where the cooler makes the all-important contact with the processor. Evercool used a HDT (heat pipe direct touch) base, where the heat pipes make direct contact with the CPU. This type of base design became popular as manufacturers saw the base-plate to be rudimentary. The only downside of this, however, is that if not done well, there will be gaps and crevices where TIM will seep in, forming thicker portions that act as insulators, degrading cooling performance.

I'm not entirely convinced with Evercool's handiwork here. There's nothing particularly wrong with the polishing. At places, though, heat pipes are embedded deeper than the rest of the block creating tiny gaps, at other places, there are slightly deep crevices between the edges of the heat pipes and the heatsink. I placed a new 1 Rupee coin (which has a smooth and even edge) onto the base, and it might show you what I mean.