Spire KestrelKing VI AMD Athlon 64 CPU Cooler Review
By: Michael Phrakaysone
Edited By: Steve M. Silver

The AMD Athlon 64 line continues to shine. I am a firm believer that this year will be AMD’s year. With all the new processors on the AMD front, people need something to cool their CPUs and, especially for overclockers, something better than the AMD solution. Spire is a reputable company that has produced cooling solutions for the past 15 years and I have found their past products to be competitively priced and great performing. Today I will be reviewing their KestrelKing VI CPU cooler for the AMD Athlon 64 series of CPUs.

Specifications

• Heatsink dimensions: 107×80×60 mm (l × w × h)
• 12VDC Fan: 70×70×25 mm (Ball bearing)
• Rated speed: 3050 ~ 6000 RPM
• Noise level: 21.0 ~ 40.0 dBA
• Airflow: 21.3 CFM at 3,050 RPM - 41.9 CFM at 6,000 RPM
• Connector: 3 Pin, mainboard
• Thermal resistance: 0.309 °C/W
• Thermal type: Stars-420 white grease (Injection tube)
• Maximum CPU models supported: Athlon 64 up to ~ 4000+, Athlon 64 FX up to FX55, Opteron ~ 850, Sempron ~ 3100+

The KestrelKing VI comes inside the usual small-corrugated packaging with a new design, which feels more “cool”. The packaging includes the products features on the side and rear of the box.

Included with the KestrelKing VI are the following items…

• KestrelKing VI unit
• Thermal interface material; Stars 420
• Complete mounting bracket for K8 (Retention bracket and the insulated backplate)
• Mounting screws

The KestrelKing VI is a solid compact heatsink/fan combination that looks quite attractive. It appears mean and strong and doesn’t look cheap. The KestrelKing VI is made from two metals, aluminum and copper. The overall heatsink design is formed out of aluminum and the base is made from solid copper which looks like was sandwiched into the mix. The micro-fin design that the KestrelKing VI uses helps to dissipate heat evenly.

The fan is a 70mm design. This regular looking black fan is more than you expect. It’s a 3-pin variable speed fan, which has an integrated thermometer that speeds up automatically if heat rises and slows down when the CPU temperatures are at optimal temperatures. During Cool’n’Quiet use, this fan sounds really good. Some other fans make weird noises during Cool’n’Quiet, yet this one sounds more fluid. This fan spins around 3050-6000 RPM depending on CPU operating temperatures. It spins at a noise of around 21 to 40dBA, which isn’t too loud for most use. A fan guard protects users from getting their fingers struck and prevents any wires as well. A nice thing to note is the addition of Spire sleeving of the fan wire for neatness.

It uses a curvy heatsink design which, along with the micro-fin technology, allows the heat to be dispersed in a kind of a wave formation. The bottom of the cooler is a bit different from the norm. From the side marks, it appears the copper base is soldered or sandwiched onto the aluminum heatsink.

The base finish looks to be flat and is not polished. Machine marks are easily visible but should not be a problem because of the purpose of the thesrmal interface material. On the other hand, dedicated modders will want to smooth this surface for optimum performance by lapping, a procedure we have described.

The clip mechanism is in the form of a single-prong clip with a standard AMD specification retention clip.

Testing

The KestrelKing VI was tested over the past several months so you can take this as a long-term review. The thermal compound was Arctic Silver 5. The Arctic Silver 5 review can be found here.

System specifications can be found here.

Idle temperatures were taken after 30 minutes of doing nothing within the Windows XP environment. Load temperatures were taken among games and programs, but particularly with Toast burning software, for another 30 minutes.

Ambient temperatures hovered around 23 degrees at the time of testing.  This test was done with Cool'n'Quiet disabled.

Results:

From the results, we see the Spire KestrelKing VI performing pretty good for what it's worth.  It's obviously much better than a stock cooler from previous experiences.  Another thing is to note about Cool'n'Quiet technology, I almost wished Intel would adopt this kind of feature in their newer Pentium 4 processors such as the dual-core design because those run extremely hot upwards over 65+ degrees idle!  This is from experience at working for a computer store.

Other images of the Spire KestrelKing VI

Conclusion

As a whole, the KestrelKing VI processor cooler from Spire is a solid alternative to the stock AMD cooler and other performance coolers on the market. The construction is top notch and the design is great. I have no hesitation in recommending this cooler to anyone looking for an alternative for better CPU temperatures.

Pros and Cons

• + Construction and design
• + Good performance
• + Sleeved wire
• + Bundled hardware
•  - Not for silent computers
•  - Base is not polished; visible machine markings
•  - Fan is simple black fan; no LED’s

I would like to thank Spire for making this review possible and I advise you to take a visit to their website for more and new exciting products on the horizon.

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