Hardware Bistro

Product: Buffalo
Manufacturer: Evercool
Supplied by: Evercool
Price: 18USD/RM63
Launch Date: NA

 

Today let us bring you another CPU cooler from Evercool besides the giant CPU cooler; Transformer 4 where we have reviewed just a week ago. Unlike Evercool Transformer 4, Buffalo is a non universal cooler which supports multiple of sockets which may due to size constraint but the advantages are smaller size, product simplicity and come with fairly cheap price. 

 

Company Profile

EVERCOOL is the top 5 cooling fan manufacturer in Taiwan, we specialized in PC Thermal Solutions, especially in CPU cooling field, our main products including CPU cooler, water cooler, DC fan, heat pipe, HDD cooler, system blower and peripheral.

EVERCOOL is headquartered in Taiwan and has its own factory located in Guang Dong China. This means that you can count on availability, as EVERCOOL warehouse is full of components and ready to ship goods, at all times.

 

Features

• HPFI7-10025: For intel core i7(NEW UP DATE)
• HPFI-10025: for INTEL LGA775
• HPFA-10025: for AMD
• Compatible for all kinds of high-end CPU version.
• Dual Ø6 heat pipe cooler with highthermal conductive technology and special welding techniques enable seamless connections between finsand pipes.
• By using 10cm fan with more strong air flow and quiet.
• Easy to install for all users.
• Bullfight design to make it unique and characteristic.

 

Specifications

Package & Contents

 

Evercool Buffalo comes with an eye-catching cardboard box which is filled in with red & black colors; could it be the warning signal as Buffalo stands for dangerous right? There is socket indication at the back of the box; either Intel 775 or AMD 754/939/940/AM2 but we received the latest confirmation from Evercool, another model was released to Intel i7 socket; hence there are total 3 models for Evercool Buffalo.

Evercool Buffalo is a pretty simple plug & play CPU cooler hence no other accessory is bundled together except a tube of 0.8g thermal compound which is ideal for computer newbie so that they no need to scratch their head to purchase additional thermal compound. The installation steps are printed on the cardboard box which is a pretty good idea as it is not only help to reduce its product cost but also good for environment and user shouldn't have any problem with it since Evercool Buffalo is a simple cooler.

 

A Closer Look: Evercool Buffalo

 

Evercool Buffalo Cooler is a mainstream CPU cooler with moderate size and decent performance when compares with stock cooler. As we mention before since Evercool Buffalo doesn't come with universal mounting socket, there are total 3 models for AMD, Intel 775 and Intel LGA i7 socket hence please pay attention when selecting the right model. No doubt without the universal mounting, it will be one of the major disadvantages for this cooler but since Evercool Buffalo is just targeting for mainstream market then it should be alright if the price is attractive enough.

Here are the layout designs of Evercool Buffalo with exact dimension. The overall dimension of Evercool Buffalo is 110 x 46 x 142.7 mm (without fan) and 110 x 72 x 142.7 mm (with fan). In term of compatibility, such small cooler shouldn't cause any problem with most of the PC case and motherboard except for those HTPC, micro ATX cases and those advanced motherboard with giant chipset cooler. The net weight of Evercool Buffalo is around 500g which is pretty light and hence no back mounting plate is required to support such light weight cooler.

 

Although Evercool Buffalo is an entry cooler but it is still equipped with two 6mm diameter copper U-type heat pipes to maximize its cooling performance with acceptable product cost (as most of the high end coolers are structured with 3 - 4 heat pipes). The top portion of these copper heat pipes are silver chromed which looks nicer and able to avoid corrosion. Besides that there is a very attractive and interesting logo on the top aluminum fin of Evercool Buffalo.

 

The fan is pre-mounted on the Evercool Buffalo cooler which is a good move since end user doesn't require installing them separately due to its size advantage. The fan clip is also pre-mounted on the cooler which is another advantage than individual clips as the fan clip won't be lost and it also help to simplify the installation process as well. Besides that the some rubber feet are included for these fan clips so that the operating noise could be further reduced.

 

Here is the bare heatsink of Evercool Buffalo when the fan is dismounted from the cooler. There are total 60 aluminum fins for Evercool Buffalo where each of these aluminum fins come with surface area of 110 x 45 mm. Although Evercool Buffalo is a single fan CPU cooler but basically if you look closely then you will find two additional fan clip holes on these aluminum fins; we believe these aluminum fins are being shared and used for other Evercool CPU coolers as well.

 

As you can see the copper base of Evercool Buffalo is pre-mounted with Intel LGA775 mounting clip since our sample is a LGA775 supported Buffalo cooler. Since all these Evercool Buffalo coolers are sharing the same base then it could be possible for Evercool to include all these socket mountings (maybe the 4th model with all mounting brackets) as it could be really useful for those plan to upgrade in the future or having multiple of systems.

 

Besides the aluminum fins and copper heat pipes, Evercool Buffalo is also equipped with copper base which is the best combination for a cooler in term of performance and economic. However the heat pipes are not integrated with the copper base which is the latest method for achieving better cooling performance since the heat conductive rate could be increased significantly. The copper base of Evercool Buffalo isn't shinning but it is flat and good enough for avoiding you to do the lapping.

 

For the mounting method, Evercool has chosen a simple but effective installation method where the cooler can be mounted and dismounted on the system easily without removing out the motherboard since no back plate is required. Anyway the mounting method is exactly same with Intel LGA775 CPU stock cooler which is a simple push & lock clip (push to lock and turn counter clockwise to release).

 

For the fan, Evercool Buffalo is using a 100mm cooling fan which is pretty rare as most of the time we only see 80mm, 92mm or 120mm fans but not 100mm. The fan is Ever lubricate bearing fan which is a long life bearing and it is having 1800 RPM with less than 23dBA. The red fan blades are really eye-catching and most of the Evercool coolers are matched with such red fan; almost becomes a trademark for Evercool cooler. Anyway this original fan can be replaced by 92mm fan for either upgrading or replacing purpose.

 

Installation, Testing & Performance

Before the installation, let us show you side by side comparison between Evercool Transformer 4 and Buffalo. As you can see, both of these coolers are having quite similar height; 110mm for Buffalo and 130mm for Transformer 4. However in term of width and length, Transformer 4 is much longer than Buffalo; 122 x 160mm vs 72 x 142.7mm.

 

In term of installation and testing, we have tested Evercool Buffalo on an Intel LGA 775 motherboard. Since Evercool Buffalo is using a simple plug & lock clip, frankly to say we didn't encounter any installation problem at all and the whole installation process takes less than 10 minutes (excluding the uninstallation for previous cooler). However users need to ensure the clip is fully inserted by hearing a "tit" sound and turning counter clockwise direction to release the lock. Lastly don't forget to connect the 3-pin cable in order to power up the Evercool Buffalo.

 

Test Bed: 

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8300 @ 2.83GHz
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3 (Gigabyte G31M-ES2L)
Heatsink: Evercool Buffalo
Memory: Kingston HyperX DDR2 8500
Hard Drive: 250GB 7200RPM 8MB Seagate
Graphic Card: Galaxy GeForce GTX260+
PSU: In Win Commander 750W
Router: TRENDnet TEW-639GR
Optical Drive: DVD RW
Monitor: Dell 22" Wide Screen LCD
Speaker: Edifier R501
Mouse: SteelSeries Ikari Laser
Mouse Pad: SteelSeries QcK+
HeadSet: SteelSeries 3H
Operating System: Microsoft XP Pro SP2/Vista Home Premium
Ambient Temperature: 27 Degree Celsius

For the full load testing, we have tested Evercool Buffalo with Prime95 for 30 minutes to get it maximum loading which gives better accuracy result. Based on the results above, the performance of Evercool Buffalo isn't really outshine the rest and this is reasonable because we have compared it with other high end CPU coolers; some of them are pretty famous and even one of the best selling CPU coolers around the world. However when we compares Evercool Buffalo with 3350A and Silent Spirit which are fallen on the same category then the results of Evercool Buffalo is pretty promising with its low operating noise.

 

Verdicts 

Evercool Buffalo is not the latest CPU cooler from Evercool and in fact it was released quite some time ago in year 2007. Nevertheless, Evercool Buffalo is still able to perform good enough when compares with today latest mainstream coolers which are shown in our test results. If your case and budget allow then we will suggest you always go for the best one else Evercool Buffalo isn't a bad choice and furthermore it is just being sold at less than 20USD and we even found 16USD on some online stores which are super good deal for such stylish mainstream CPU cooler.

 

Pros:

+ Value mainstream cooler
+ Eye-catching & stylish design
+ Satisfied performance with low noise
+ Simple mounting & installation method
+ Fan is replaceable

Cons:

- Non universal cooler

 

Thanks to Evercool for providing this sample for us to review.

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