Silencing The SOHO

With even more CPU heatsinks, we have the Spire SP495S11-U QuieTude VI. The Spire heatsink is made out of aluminum; and attached to the top of it is a non-standard 80mm fan. Like the Arctic cooling fans, the blades are suspended from the frame rather than being directly attached to the heatsink. This unconventional design helps to reduce the noise made by the fan while also assisting in maximizing the airflow. On the bottom of the heatsink there is a thermal pad already attached for users who do not have their own thermal paste and a protective plastic cover, to prevent additional damage during shipping. The installation was much like any other heatsink installation, and it used two retention clips to attach to the Intel socket. Installing this heatsink in our system gave us performance similar to the stock heatsink, but at much lower sound levels. In fact we couldn’t hear it at all above the other fans in the system. For people just looking for a stock heatsink and fan replacement, this is probably a very good choice as it can be bought at less than $15!