Recently we reviewed Spire Coolers socket 478 Pentium 4 CPU Cooler that was aimed at quiet performance but not really aimed so much at performance (the QuieTude VI). So what about you people out there that want to do a bit of overclocking or put a lot of strain on your CPU and want to get it a bit cooler than the stock cooler can. Well, today I bring you the CF450B0, or also known as Spire Coolers CoolGate.

The CoolGate is made for Socket 478 Processors. Socket 478 is Pentium 4 class, but do not mix it up with LGA775 which is another version of Pentium 4 Processors.

Upon opening the box, the CoolGate seems very small in size. It is smaller than teh QuieTude VI and the stock intel fan. Another big difference is that it has the fan mounted on the side. This means that unlike most processor fans that blow air down onto the CPU, the CoolGate blows are over the the CPU from the side. In my mind these type of coolers always seem to do a better job of cooling and seem to get more air flowing through the heatsink fins. Another neat feature of the CoolGate is that it is really setup as two heat sinks set on top of each other (the top one being flipped so the fins are facing the fins of the other one) and the two heat sinks are connected via a heat pipe. Then the fan blows through these heat sinks and cools the massive amount of surface area off. In looking at the way the air flows through the heat sinks, and the way the whole cooler is setup, it really seems like it could get the job done and be a very good performing CPU cooler.

Included in the box is a small tube of thermal paste and the two mounting clips. This Cooler connects the same way as the standard intel fans do so you do not need to change the mounting bracket on the board, which also (great news) means that we do not need to take out the whole mainboard to install this Cooler. Just unclip the intel one, then clip in the CoolGate. The bottom of the CoolGate is fairly smooth and shiny, but also has the grain of where you can see it was finished. I actually like this as it gives the thermal paste a place to go and from experience I am lead to believe this gives a better bond between CPU and Cooler.

Here you can see the CoolGate with the Stock Intel Cooler (upper right) and QuieTude VI (upper left).

Once you put the thermal paste on your CPU and sit the CoolGate on top in the bracket, you can use the two mounting clips to secure it to your mainboard. The clips go against two extensions of the bottom plate that are on the bottom of the CoolGate and it was amazingly easy to install. This is one of the easiest coolers that I have ever used to install as there is no slipping or give in the clips because of where they sit on the CoolGate. Now that the CoolGate is mounted, you can plug in the covered electrical cable (looks the same as the one on the QuieTude, covered nicely in a white wrap) into the plug on your mainboard and you are ready to go.

Now, the first part for testing I would like to mention the noise that the CoolGate gives off. It is barely any at all and frankly was quieter than the stock intel fan I had on my system. It was not quite as noisless as the QuieTude, but it was very quiet and I do not really see how other reviews I have read on the web say that the fan is "Crap" and "Noisy at full speed". I do not have a fan controller on my CPU fan so it is always running at full speed and it seemed to be very quiet, easily drowned out by my 2 - 80mm Case fans on the side panel of my case.

For testing, I put this fan through the same test as the QuieTude VI. The procedure is as follows:

• Idle for 10 minutes
• iTunes - Start Playing Song (Jerk It Out)
• 5 Sec
• Fireworks MX
• 5 Sec
• IE x3
• 5 Sec
• Giant AntiSpyware - Start Full System Scan
• 5 Sec
• Trillian IM Client
• 5 Sec
• TEMP READING 1 FROM SPEED FAN
• 5 Sec
• Outlook Express - Open Inbox
• 5 Sec
• Spybot S&D - Start Scan
• 5 Sec
• Flash FXP FTP Client
• 5 Sec
• Microsoft Word
• 5 Sec
• Microsoft Excel
• 5 Sec
• Microsoft Frontpage
• 5 Sec
• Firefox
• 5 Sec
• TEMP READING 2
• 5 Sec
• TEMP READING 3
• 5 Sec
• TEMP READING 4
• 1 Minute
• Temp Reading 5

Now, the CoolGate seemed to idle just a bit less than the QuieTude and the stock intel fan (around 88F), but once we got into the tests of starting programs, loading things, etc. The CoolGate was amazing. It seemed to have the trend of a stock intel fan in that it did not get very jerky with the temperatures (the QuieTude as you will notice in my other review liked to jump to a high temp, then cool down quickly, jump, then cool down, etc.) but it also had the trend of keeping the temperatures lower than the QuieTude or stock intel fan. My best example for performance is while playing the game Battlefield 2. The Stock intel fan would top out at about 120F when playing, the QuieTude 123F, the CoolGate 114F. It may be only 6F, but it is a major difference when it comes to other programs and tasks you do on your PC, it consistently was around 4-8F lower than the QuieTude or Stock Intel fans in my real time usage of it.

To badly our Socket 478 test rig crashed before I could finish with the graphs of the temp readings, but from my usage of the fan over the weeks before and monitoring speedfan, I could definitely tell you that it was 4-8F cooler than the QuieTude and Stock Intel fans. For its size, noise level, and cost, I can tell you that this is one great value in a performance CPU cooler. It performs very well in usage, and keeps the temperatures much cooler than the Stock Intel fan. This is a great investment for any gamer or hard core pc user.

Pros:

• Small
• Great Performance
• Somewhat Quiet
• No need to take out mainboard to install
• Quality construction

Cons:

• Could cool a bit more to compete with some of the 30-40$ Coolers
• Fan is standard black (no UV blue like on the QuieTude)

Thanks to Spire Coolers for the Review Sample!