The Spire QuieTude VI is a relatively new processor fan from Spire Coolers. The main focus is to be a very quiet fan and yet still perform well and keep your processor cool. The QuieTude VI is for Socket 478 Pentium 4 Processors up to 3.6GHZ (Prescott) or 3.4GHZ (Willamette/HT NW). Here is the spec on this fan from Spire's Website.

The QuieTude comes in a pretty standard retail box along with two retention clips. There is already a thermal grease (actually in a pad form) applied to the bottom of the cooler, so they use a plastic protection shield that sits over the bottom of the cooler that you need to remove before installation. This protects the thermal grease from being disrupted during shipping/handling.

Looking at the cooler it is a relatively standard design. The main portion consists of an aluminum heat sink with a round copper core (not visible without removing the thermal grease pad) in the center. On top is the 25 CFM 19 dBA fan which has a very neat and unique looking being angled into a diamond shape. People out there with case windows will enjoy the look of the fan, plus the fan is made of a blue UV reactive plastic that looks very nice under UV lights. Another very nice touch is that the cord is covered in a white shield to give a very finished look.

Installation of this fan is very straight forward. Unlike some fans, this fan does not require you to remove the bracket from your mainboard and replace it with a new one. All you are required to do is take off the stock fan (usually Intel fans have clips or fold down bars that can easily be removed) and then place the QuieTude in place. Next take the included retention clips and snap them across the heat sink connecting each to your current stock CPU fan bracket. Finally take and plug the cord into your fan power connection on your mainboard and you are ready to go!

Now, before I go into testing, we should go over what machine I used for testing. The test computer is a Pentium 4 3.0GHZ HT Processor with 800MHZ FSB. This is on a ECS 865GM Mainboard with 1gb DDR2700 Memory. It is in a full size ATX case with 2 80mm side fans, 1 rear 80mm PCI slot fan, and a BFG 6800 OC video card with on board heat sink and dual fans. As you can see there are quite a few fans on this rig, but all are very quiet so the Intel Processor fan was a bit audible. The stock Intel fan was a copper core with the copper extending out to the sides in a square pattern. Unlike some stock fans, this fan is very good under load and seems to keep this system very cool. So this should be a good comparison.

To test the fans performance against the stock Intel Fan, I made a special test procedure that 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
• Print Screen of Speed Fan Graph

Each program was opened and the count down to opening the next program was started as soon as each program was fully loaded. Here are the results (the numbers are averages of 3 tests) (All temperatures are Fahrenheit):

In usage while watching the temperatures in Speed Fan, the QuieTude seemed to jump around on the temperatures much more than the Intel stock fan. Even though in the test the QuieTude was cooler at temp reading points like 1-4, in between those points the temperature jumped up and down where as the Intel stayed at the same temperature. To show what I mean, here is the graph from speed fan. The Spire QuieTude is the blue line, and the Intel stock is the green line.

It seems as though the Spire has a small edge on the Intel as far as cooling the processor down after a significant load, but the Intel keeps the processor at a more stead temperature over time. To go on this further, after the procedure above was complete. I closed all the programs and then watched the cool down.

Spire QuieTude Cool Down Graph:

Intel Stock Cool Down Graph:

As you can see, the QuieTude keeps with its trend of cooling down the processor quickly after loads, and the Intel keeps with its sustaining temperatures and having a slower cool down.

In looking at this. I can say that the QuieTude seems to have just a bit of an edge on the Intel as far as overall cooling. But one should be careful in doing long term high processor use applications as I did notice that the QuieTude peaked higher than the Intel ever got close to (QuieTude Peak throughout hours of usage was 114F where the Intel's with the same usage was 109F).

The QuieTude does not want to go for highest cooling power though, its main game is its quiet operation. In the quiet department, the QuieTude is absolutely amazing. It is noticeably quieter than the Intel Stock fan and any other CPU fan I have used. Plus it still performs close to the Intel Stock Fan. In my mind, not a bad deal if you can get quiet with still good performance.

Overall the QuieTude is a very good fan that is well made and backed by a good company (Spire Coolers). In usage it was close to a Pentium 4 Stock Copper Core Fan in performance, but in sound terms, it was much much better and quieter. Installation is simple as it is relatively the size of a stock Intel fan (no replacing brackets). It looks nice, performs nice, sounds nice, and overall just is nice to use!

Pros:

• Quiet!
• Good Looks
• UV reactive blue plastic
• Good Performance for how little sound it makes

Cons:

• Can peak at higher temperatures than the stock Intel fan
• Small Copper Zone

Thanks to Spire Coolers for the review sample!