Preparing the CoolGate Cooler

The high number of fins in the CoolGate increases its overall surface area and allows for better thermal dissipation. This technique of having a high number of fins also leads towards a smaller design as a hole. So Spire was able to combine a bigger surface with a smaller heatsink design. This is quite unique as lately most coolers are growing quite fast in size and weight.

The base of the Spire CoolGate CPU cooler is protected by a soft plastic cover. Before installing the CoolGate this cover has to be removed. The base and, more importantly, the contact area of the heatsink are probably the areas which deserve the most attention in the finishing of any heatsink. We were a bit disappointed to find that the base of the CoolGate was not as well-finished as we had hoped it would be. Some grain on the base of a heatsink however is good to help allow the thermal paste to collect into the pores of the base and CPU.

The heatsink comes almost pre-assembled. But before you can actually install the cooler, you must first attach the mounting brackets onto the heatsink. It is a fairly straightforward procedure. Spire left the mounting module off the heatsink most likely to allow for more compact packaging. The mounting clips are simply placed on the screw holes on the heatsink and tightened. Once done, your CoolGate is ready to be mounted!

Installing the CoolGate...

Now that we are ready we can finally get started to install the CoolGate into our test rig. First we removed the stock Intel heatsink that we have been using for ages. It isn't too bad, but there are better solutions to cool our Intel P4 Prescott, and that is where the Spire CoolGate comes into the story.

Once the stock heatsink is removed we clean up the old thermal paste as much as possible until the CPU is clearly visible. So, never re-use the old thermal paste as it will degrade the performance and it will have made some air bubbles within the old paste while you removed the stock heatsink. Clean it up and apply some fresh thermal compound of your choice.

As Spire delivered some thermal compound with the CoolGate CPU Cooler we have used it to cover of the top of our Intel P4 processor. Just a thin film evenly spread is enough. With the clips attached, we proceeded to mount the CoolGate onto the processor. This came with a minor burden as the cooler didn't go in properly due to the blue plastic strips kept getting caught on the bracket. However, once you overcome this, the CoolGate fits quite well.

Once the CoolGate sits down on the processor you can lock it down by fastening the four clips. That's it, all locked and ready to do the job. We just connect the 3-pin power connection with our Cooler Master Cool Drive 6 and we are ready to go. All that's left is to boot up the computer and start overclocking!