Review: Extreme Spirit II
Spirit-ual Healing
Continuing in my quest for cooler temperatures and hardware longevity, I embarked on additional purchases from the internet. Not that I wasn’t happy with my heat sink, it was actually more on my cooler located on the North and South bridges. Today’s enthusiast motherboards in my opinion come short of what they are suppose to be. They are not hardcore enough. Yes, they are silent but many will agree with me that their passive heatsinks are too hot to handle whether it is a stylish HS or have heatpipes. Considering that the heatpipe is connected to another HS which conducts heat from the mosfets, is there cooling at all?
Gone were the days when active cooling was placed on the chipsets but since it plays an active role in overclocking, it would be a worthy investment not just to overclock better but because, even on stock, chipset temperatures are over the top.
Packaging:
Weighing in at 1/2lb, the Extreme Spirit II is encased in a semi hardened plastic mold. Basically, it’s cased like its older brother where the cooler and paper is sandwiched in between. It does look sturdy enough housing both the cooler and additional accessories as well as being able to lock together securely.
Accessories:
The Spirit II did not come short on accessories used to mount it. It comes with fours gold colored hex nuts to lock the heat sink, four washers to protect the motherboard, two long screws which serves as the base of the lock, two hooked screws to lock onto anchor clips and one round white ring foam gasket used to protect chipsets with transistors sticking out of the IC package.
The Merchandise:
Passive heat sinks like the Thermalright HR-05 was a welcome addition to the cooling market. Now having heatpipe was cool, but having a 40mm fan for active cooling is a major plus. This was indeed a giant step compared to its brother the Spirit I. This was more stylish, made of copper, noiseless and an engineering accomplishment. This wasn’t an improvement; it was a major overhaul not just from its predecessors but also from the competition.
Designed like a large D battery, from the base and heatpipe, it shouts copper. The heatpipe is actually just one piece shaped and molded with the center making contact with the base and both ends sticking upright so the copper radiator is connected. The 40mm fan attaches itself onto the radiator in an enclosure with the TT logo emblazoned on top. Four blue LEDs are in a cross formation provide that blue glow.
Now one of the distinct features of the Extreme Spirit is in the way you can attach it to the chipset. The size of each chipset actually differs and the mounting holes are placed differently. The Extreme Spirit II has actually anticipated this problem, after removing the mother, putting those washers and their long screws on the mounting holes. as the screwing mechanism can be slid around so it will measure exactly on the mounting hole which you need to just tighten. Aside from having moveable mounting parts, the base of the actually moves. However it does not move fully as advertised or shown in other reviews. It may rotate up to 30° to 60° from its base.
Uppers:
* Can be installed on Northbridge and Southbridge.
* Nice blue LED glow.
* 4800RPM fan speed at inaudible sounds.
* Adaptable clips and height to meet on any mounting holes and adjustment to capacitor layout.
* Sufficient length for 3-pin power cable.
Downers:
* Installation is not as easy as it seems.
* Rotating installation not really 360° or 180°, maybe 72° only.
* Expensive.
* Motherboard compatibility list questionable due to SB placing and 2nd graphic card.
Wishlist:
* UV glow or paintjob finish. Motherboard removal not required.
* Color changing LED based on temperature.
Alternatives:
* Thermalright HR-05/SLI
* Akasa AK-210 Cool Blue LED Low Noise Chipset Cooler