Evercool Transformer 4 Plus Review

Back in August we looked at our first cooler from Evercool and today we are going to examine their Transformer 4 CPU. This cooler is a tower style heatsink that uses four 8mm direct touch heatpipes. Evercool provide dual 120mm fans to increase performance but give the option to use a single or dual fan configuration. The cooler is compatible with AMD K8/AM2/AM2+/AM3 and Intel LGA 775/1366/1156 processors. Today we will be conducting our testing on the AMD AM3 platform. Features 4 heatpipes in 8mm, large aluminum fins with Heat Pipe Contact provide effective cooling. All-in-one socket design for compatible with both Intel LGA 775/ LGA 1366/ LGA 1156 and AMD K8/AM2/AM2+/AM3. User can choose to install one or two 12cm silent fans (PWM Function) according user’s need to achieve great noiseless and cooling capacity. Bright silver and solid appearance. Easy installation. Intel Compatibility For Intel LGA 1366 Core™ i7 i7-920~i7-960 Core™ i7 Extreme Edition i7-965~i7-980X For Intel LGA 1156 Core™ i7 i7-860~i7-870 Core™ i5 i5-680~i5-750/i5-750S/i5-655K Core™ i3 i3-530~i3-550 For Intel LGA 775 Core2 Duo up to～E8600 Core2 Extreme up to～QX9770/X6800 Core2 Quad up to～Q9650 Pentium D up to～960 Pentium Dual Core up to～E6500/E6500K Pentium Extreme up to～965 Pentium 4 up to～672 Pentium 4 Extreme up to～3.73G Hz Celeron up to～365/E3300 AMD Compatibility For AMD K8/AM2/AM2+/AM3 AMD Phenom™ II X6 Black Edition 1090T AMD Phenom™ II X6 1055T AMD Phenom™ II X4 805~965/B93~B95/900e~905e AMD Phenom™ II X3 710~720/700e~705e/B73~B75 AMD Phenom™ II X2 545~555/B53~B55 AMD Athlon™ II X4 620~635/600e~605e AMD Athlon™ II X3 425~440/400e~405e AMD Athlon™ II X2 215~255/235e~240e/B22~B24/250u~260u AMD Phenom™ X4 9500~9950/9100e~9450e AMD Phenom™ X3 8450~8750/8250e~8450e AMD Athlon™ X2 up to 6400+/7850/BE-2400/5050e AMD Athlon™ 64 up to 4000+/LE-1640 AMD Athlon™ 64 FX up to FX-62 AMD Sempron™ up to 3800+/140/LE-1300 Quad-Core AMD Opteron™ up to 1389/1224SE/1218HE Specifications Overall Dimension : 130 x 122 x 160 x mm DC Fan Size : 120 x 120 x 25 mm Heat Sink Material : Aluminum Fin+Heat Pipe Bearing Type : Ever Lubricate Bearing (Long Life bearing) Rated Speed : 800~2200 ±15% RPM (PWM Function) Rated Voltage : DC 12 V Weight : 843.5 g The Evercool Transformer 4 Plus ships fully assembled in a stiff molded plastic shell which protects the cooler, and allows potential buyers to study the item before buying it in a retail store. The front features information about product compatibility. It is compatible with Intel socket 775/LGA 1366/LGA 1156, and the AMD K8/AM2/AM2+/AM3 processors. The rear side of the package has a list of the product specifications and features. Evercool provides a complete hardware package that includes all the required mounting hardware, and a Dual fan 4pin splitter cable to provide users with the ability to use the supported PWM feature. This cooler really is very attractively designed and is supplied with dual 120mm fans, using 4 large 8mm copper heatpipes that make direct contact with the CPU. The bright silver colour scheme is the same as the Transformer 3 that we looked at in August. There is no denying this cooler offers major 'bling' factor that will leave all your computer enthusiast friends wondering what it is. The Plus version of the Transformer 4 is an updated release, they have added Intel 1156 support and added fans with PWM support. Turning the Transformer 4 for a side on view provides us with a good indication of the size of this cooler, it will definitely get your attention. We like the fact that Evercool use 8mm heatpipes, the additional 2mm makes the heatpipes look impressive. Hopefully this will be a case of 'bigger is better' when we get to our testing. Laying the cooler on its side shows us how the fan clips fit into the groves that have been cut out of the fins on either side. The design of these clips makes installing and removing the fans a breeze. Another thing we noticed was the ability to raise or lower the fan position by carefully gripping the fan and sliding it up or down using the groves that support the fan clips. This could assist people with RAM that is not a low profile design. This overhead view shows us the shiny silver coating that has been applied to the portion of the heatpipes that protrude out of the top of the tower. In our opinion this adds to the products visual appeal. Evercool uses a pair of their own fans on the Transformer 4 Plus. These fans are are the 12v variety and they spin at speeds between 800 - 2200 RPM. They have a maximum CFM rating of 78.41, which is plenty of air movement but they can be noisy at full speed. They are rated at <39 dBA when running at full speed. The base of the Transformer 4 ships with a plastic layer protecting the base of the cooler. The base of the cooler is not perfectly flat, or smooth, but there are no major engineering concerns of any kind to worry about. Installing the Transformer 4 Plus is a very straight forward procedure. First we choose the correct backplate for our AMD powered system. After inserting the 4 screws through the backplate we place the white washers in place and attach the 4 threaded support posts. With the supports in place we place the heatsink and retaining bracket in the correct orientation and secure them with 4 silver nuts. We recommend tightening these screws in a kitty corner fashion. (kitty corner: When at an intersection, something that is 'kitty corner' to another will be on the opposite quadrant diagonally from the other.). This ensures that the pressure is evenly distributed, and to make the best contact possible with the processor. These final 2 pictures are of the Transformer 4 Plus installed and ready to rock & roll. Thanks to the silver/chrome finish it's hard for this cooler not to grab your attention. Finally we are ready for our testing, it's time to see if the good looks of the Transformer 4 Plus can impress where it's important ... keeping the processor cool. Today we are going to test the Evercool Transformer 4 Plus with the AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition CPU. The AMD PII X6 1090T Black Edition ships at 3.2ghz but can hit 4.0 GHz (and above) when paired with the right cooling system. We like to try and mirror ‘realistic’ conditions when possible, so instead of the open bench concept, we are mounting the build inside the NZXT Phantom Chassis. Room ambient temperatures were maintained at a steady 22c throughout testing. AMD System: Processor: AMD PII X6 1090T Black Edition Coolers: Evercool Tranformer 4 Plus, NZXT Havik 140, Noctua NH-C12P SE 14 Motherboard: MSI 990FXA-GD80 Thermal Paste: Evercool Thermal paste Power Supply: Corsair HX 850W Chassis: NZXT Phantom Memory: 8GB Mushkin Enhanced Silverline Stiletto DDR3 1333mhz Cas 9-9-9-24- 1T Graphics Card: Sapphire 6950 2 GB (1536 unified shaders) There are several different applications available that will load a processor to the limit while running through a series of complicated calculations. For today’s testing we are going to use the latest version of Prime 95. Prime95 is a popular freeware application that can be used to stress test the CPU. Validation Link After 15 minutes of Prime 95 running to heat up the CPU we recorded our temperatures. The performance of the Transformer 4 Plus is very good, beating both the NZXT Havik 140 by 2c and the Noctua NH-C12P SE 14 by 8c, with the PWM feature enabled. While running the fans in this mode, the noise level was very impressive. The dual fans only reached 1,490 RPM compared to 2,200 RPM when we run them at 100%. There was a considerable drop in fan noise using the PWM feature, yet there was only minimal increase in temperatures. Next we overclocked the Phenom II X6 1090T to 4.0 GHz and retested the coolers. Once again the Evercool Transformer 4 held down top spot by edging out the NZXT Havik 140 by 2c and the Noctua cooler by 5c with the fans running at full speed. When we enabled the PWM feature in our bios the Transformer 4 Plus was still able to edge out the Noctua NH-C12P SE 14 by 1c, while providing a very quiet experience. Evercool should be very proud of what they have achieved with the Transformer 4 Plus Cooler. The 160mm tall tower features 4 x 8mm heatpipes and dual 120mm PWM controlled fans that each move close to 80 CFM of air. The bright silver colour used on the fans and the top of the heatpipes really help this cooler to stand out in a very crowded marketplace. This cooler managed to out perform both the Havik 140 and the Noctua NH-C12P SE 14, which is an impressive achievement. To be honest we were both surprised and disappointed that this cooler is so difficult to find online. Evercool advised us that the Transformer 4 Plus is priced at $40 USD and we were unable to find it at all in the UK before going live with the review. The price point is very impressive, but if it is this hard to find we feel that Evercool will be losing many potential sales. Stronger availability is going be a must if Evercool expect to compete on a large scale. If you are one of the lucky people who get a chance to take one of these home, we doubt that you will be disappointed. If you can find one, the Evercool Transformer 4 Plus is definitely a product worth buying. Pros: Great looks. Simple to install. PWM controlled fans. Excellent cooling. Priced to sell, if you can find it. Cons: Fans are loud at full speed. Availability seems very limited.

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Evercool Transformer 4 Plus Review

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