Introduction

Aerocool is a company that prides itself in providing silent cooling solutions while still maintaining high levels of performance. Today I am looking at the Aerocool Extreme, which is one of their all-copper coolers and a member of their “Silence Solutions”.

I remember the days of my good old 486 DX2 66mhz which hummed along happily for many years with only the ceramic packaging to dissipate the heat. A few years later all my Pentium MMX 233mhz required was a tiny cooler the size of that old 486 and a 40mm fan. Today I'd light the house on fire trying such things and that is why companies such as Aerocool exist.

The Extreme will also function perfectly on Socket 370 or even dating back to the Socket 7 due to size similarities.

The rated speeds are impressive with this cooler able to theoretically handle a 3.6ghz P4 or an Athlon XP 3000+.

In a far cry from the typical cardboard box, the Extreme comes packaging in a large and roomy blue plastic case. The eye-catching ability of this case is not to be underestimated and makes this a perfect choice as a gift. It not only looks good but prevents your cooler from harm caused by the evil FedEx man.

After feeling almost ashamed to tear it apart I dumped it's contents onto the table and took a closer look.

The Extreme is a fairly good looking cooler even though little has been done to push itself past the bog standard HSF styling. It would look very much at home in a Thermaltake Xaser and appeals to the more flashy personalities. The clean lines of a Lian Li would make it look out of place so keep this in mind when purchasing.

The blue looks very good against the copper heatsink and this colour scheme is carried up into the fan for the sake of consistency. The fan also has 4 blue LEDs which heighten this effect.

The fan rating of 34 cfm @ 30 dBA is good and on par with most fans in terms of the dBA/CFM ratio. An 80mm Vantec Stealth might make a good replacement if you want perfect silence. There are no Smart Fan capabilities to speak of though.

I am very pleased the see the inclusion of a clip that uses all the lugs on the socket. This is a feature that should be standard on all heatsinks because of the added stability, safety and strength. Unfortunately the actual metal that the clip uses feels flimsy and prone to being twisted and warped. Hopefully this will not make installation a hazard.

Aerocool went for the thin finned approach with this cooler and included lots of them. The thinner fins allow for more surface area and better heat dissipation into the air. It also looks more impressive.

The bottom of the cooler has been smoothed to a wonderful perfection. You can see your face quite easily on it. After staring at the definition of perfection for a few minutes I forced myself back to work. I'm used to being forced to lap a cooler after purchase but this is an exception.

Along with the HSF itself, Aerocool packaged a number of other goodies into the fancy case.

It also comes with 2 mounting clips for application on a P4 socket 478 as well as the screws to attach them to the cooler. My greatest surprise came when I checked over the included tube of thermal paste. It boasts 25% silver content which is much better than the usual package of generic white gunk.

The included instructions are clear and concise for the new user as well. With the Athlon and P4 having been out for a number of years now there is no excuse for poorly made instructions.

Installation