Evercool Transformer 4 CPU Cooler Review

Main Menu

Login Form

Support Us!

Product: Transformer 4
Manufacturer: Evercool
Supplied by: Evercool
Price: 43USD/RM150
Launch Date: Jan 2009

Recently Transformer 2 movie; Revenge of the fallen was just shown at cinema which is one of the long awaited great movies and due to this Evercool has named one of their latest powerful CPU cooler as Transformer 4 so that it will get more attention from the PC sector. Let us quickly have a look on this Transformer 4 cooler which is a dual 120mm fans giant tower heat pipe cooler.

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

•4heatpipes in 8Φ collocate with large aluminum fins to make effective cooling.
•All in one design for application to Intel LGA 1366 & LGA 775 and AMD K8 & AM2 series motherboard.
•According to the needs, users can assemble one or two 12CM fans by themselves to achieve quiet and cooling function.
•Brightly silver and solid appearance.
•Users do not need to use tools for easy installation.

Specifications

Package & Contents

Same with most of the giant heat pipe coolers, Evercool Transformer 4 is packed with a semi transparent plastic box which is fully sealed and can't be recycled; we prefer a cardboard box so that it can be recycled and maybe for higher second hand value. Features with diagrams and specifications of Evercool Transformer 4 are stated at the back of the packaging box.

After we unpacked the outer plastic box, Evercool Transformer 4 and its accessory box are stored inside another plastic container which is shown as above. At default, both of the 120mm fans are mounted on the cooler and the rest of the accessories for this cooler are a user's manual and some mounting accessories and a thermal paste.

Evercool Transformer 4 comes with plenty of mounting accessories as this cooler supports multiple sockets which is a pretty good feature. There are two mounting backplates and one bracket; all-in-one backplate for socket LGA775/AM2/K8, a 1366 backplate and an I-shaped bracket. Besides that some nuts, bolts, screws, washers are included as well.

For the user's manual, Evercool has recycled the packaging back cardboard paper as the user's manual which is good for environment as well as product cost saving purpose. We are pretty satisfied with the user's manual of Evercool Transformer 4 because the step by step installation guides are illustrated very well with colorful diagrams; really good for computer newbie.

A Closer Look: Evercool Transformer 4

Evercool likes to name their products with interesting name and Transformer is just one of them. Other interesting unique names of Evercool products are like Buffalo, Sonic, Zodiac and etc. Besides the Transformer 4, Evercool has another CPU cooler which is named as Transformer 6 and basically we have no idea what are the "4" and "6" stand for as we don't see any significant meaning for these numbers. Anyway Transformer 4 is a U-type heat pipe CPU cooler while Transformer 6 is a cross C-type heat pipe CPU cooler.

Evercool Transformer 4 is a giant heat pipe CPU cooler which is featured with 4 heat pipes in 8Φ (8mm diameter) collocate with huge amount of aluminum fins to maximize the cooling performance which is important for today high end CPU; quad cores and upcoming octa cores processor. The overall dimension of Evercool Transformer 4 is around 130 x 122 x 160 mm and having 843.5grams weight which is pretty heavy. One of the reasons for having such weight is dual 120mm fans supportability so that Evercool Transformer 4 will able to reach the upper limitation for an air cooling.

Evercool Transformer 4 is a universal CPU cooler where both of the AMD and Intel latest sockets are supported such as K8, AM2, LGA775 as well as Intel latest socket; LGA1366. The symmetry shape of Evercool Transformer 4 cooler allows it to be mounted with dual fans on both sides so that the intake and exhaust airflow will be balanced. The "TRANSFORMER4" wording is marked on the top aluminum plate which looks very class and elegant.

Four 8Φ heat pipes are used for Evercool Transformer 4 which is the maximum heat pipe quantity that we have seen so far for a CPU air cooler currently. Although copper heat pipes are used for Evercool Transformer 4 but in order to make it more matching with the aluminum fins, the end portion of these heat pipes are nickel chromed. U-type heat pipe is used on Evercool Transformer 4 so that the heat transfer rate can be maximized compares with C-type heat pipe cooler.

Unlike other CPU coolers, the bottom aluminum base of Evercool Transformer 4 is so clean and simple where it just has a cross curve for locking the I-shaped bracket on top of it so that the cooler can be squeezed and secured on the motherboard by the I-shaped bracket and the backplate.

If you are aware the latest technology for CPU cooler besides heat pipe (not really new) then you should know about the direct heat pipe touch cooling method. For such method, all the heat pipes are integrated or merged with the base so that the heat can be dissipated through the heat pipes directly without going through another layer of metal which may impacts the cooling performance.

Both of these 120mm silver chromed fans are pre-mounted on the Evercool Transformer 4 cooler at default but in fact these fans need to be removed before it can be mounted on the motherboard easily. Each of these fans are mounted on both sides of the cooler where one of them will be intake fan while the other one will be exhaust fan.

For the cooling fan, Evercool selected a silver chromed fan for Transformer 4 which looks attractive but we prefer a more long lasting fan as the silver chromed will drop sooner or later based on our experience. Anyway if you don't like that fan, it is changeable since it is a standard 120 x 120 x 25 mm fan.

For the cooling fan, it is a low noise and long life fan which is made by heat dissipation specialist; EC12025SL12EA and using EL bearing. The fan is a 12V DC and 0.16A fan which is having around 1000 RPM and the noise is less than 21dBA in ideal case. Unlike other similar coolers, Evercool has pre-installed the mounting clip on the fan itself which is good for speeding up the installation process as well as avoiding it from being missing.

Installation, Testing & Performance

After the we have gone through this giant CPU cooler; Evercool Transformer 4, now let us talk about its installation which is playing an important role especially for newbie and tester like us where we need to change the cooler on & off. First of all, right backplate needs to be selected then install it on the motherboard with the four nuts and screws; remember add the washer so that it will protect the PCB from being damaged during fastening the backplate on the motherboard.

Next step will be fastening the cooler on the motherboard with the I-shaped bracket and four bolts. For easier installation, remember to remove out both of the fans so that these fans are not going to block the installation process; fastening the bolts. After that next step could be mounting the fans on the cooler or assembling the whole motherboard with the bare cooler inside the casing then follow by fan installation; depend on the situation.

Overall, we don't encounter any major or critical installation issue with Evercool Transformer 4 but due to its giant size, the best way to install this cooler safely and quickly is to install everything outside the case. An advantage of Evercool Transformer 4 compares with other high end coolers is we don't find any deadly compatibility issue with other components like motherboard chipset, rear fan, PSU and etc except its height problem; so please ensure your case width is able to accommodate this monster cooler from Evercool.

Test Bed:

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8300 @ 2.83GHz
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3 (Gigabyte G31M-ES2L)
Heatsink: Noctua NH-C12P
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

Here is the CPU cooler performance chart that we have collected so far based on our pass reviews. As you can see Evercool Transformer 4 performance is pretty good but still not as good as what it supposes to be since it is equipped with dual fans, 8mm copper heat pipe, direct heat pipe touch technology and so on. After we performed some investigation then we found out that one of the gating reasons for Evercool Transformer 4 to perform higher is the cooling fan. This is because cooling fan of Fenrir (quite a similar product) is running much higher compare with Transformer 4 cooling fan although dual fans are being used on Evercool Transformer 4.

If you have time or interest to tweak this Evercool Transformer 4 to gain insane performance result then you should replace the original fans with stronger CFM fans; maybe Delta or Tornado but it will be extremely noisy. In term of noise, basically Evercool Transformer 4 is more silent compares with others similar high end coolers; thanks to Evercool for choosing such low noise cooling fans.

Verdicts

Same with other high end giant CPU coolers, Evercool Transformer 4 is equipped most of the features that a high end air cooler should have such as 8mm U-type copper heat pipe, massive of aluminum fins, direct heat pipe touch, dual 120mm fans and so on. Although Evercool Transformer 4 is not the best air cooler in the market but considering it is a silent cooler and comes with decent cooling performance, it should able to gain some market share in CPU air cooler sector. If you are looking for a decent high end cooler with acceptable noise level then Evercool Transformer 4 is one of the good choices.

Pros:

+ Decent cooling performance
+ Low noise cooler
+ Four thick U-shaped 8mm copper heat pipes
+ Direct heat pipe touch technology
+ Support multiple sockets ncluding LGA1366
+ Support dual 120mm fans
+ Fan is replaceable & changeable

Cons:

- Installation could be further simplified
- Bulky &Heavy

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