Eclipse Examination (continued):

Here you can see the plastic housing after it was removed. In the first view you can see the clips that slide into the square holes on the cooler. In the second view you can see the slots where the heat pipe terminators will go. The housing is not solid, but translucent, and could create an interesting effect if the fan had LEDs, or if there were other LEDs inside the cooler.


As I mentioned previously, the fan can be easily removed via four screws. The fan is not the type you usually see on coolers, and works a little differently. The change in blade orientation allow the fan to blow air out of the blades through the cooler. At first I questioned how effective this would be, but once it was in use this little fan was putting out more air than normal 80mm case fans. Next you might wonder about the noise level. In the low speed mode it is near silent and moving the jumper to high speed mode made it a little loud, however it was not deafening.


Speaking of the integrated fan controller, I am indifferent on how it is applied. As you can see here, the fan speed is controlled by an inline jumper. There are three settings possible. The first is "Performance Mode", in this mode the fan speed is approximately 3300 RPM and as I mentioned it is loud. The second setting is "Silent Mode", in this mode the fan speed is approximately 1800 RPM. The final setting is "PWM", which will adjust the fan depending on your motherboard or other fan controller. This is the setting I prefer to use as I can change the fan speed depending on what I need. Finally, if you look at the power connector you will notice it uses a four pin plug.


As you can see in the image below, the base of the cooler is copper and is finished nicely. It does not have a mirror finish, but is perfectly smooth. On the top and bottom there are screw holes which will be used for the Intel mounting brackets. This is also the area I found the first flaw, however it is not major. If you look closely at the aluminum fins where they are attached to the copper base, some of them have become bent.