VertiCool II Close-Up...

To further make the design of the VertiCool II unique, Spire has made the fan housing UV reactive so that it will have a neat glow to it under UV case lights. It would have been nice if the fan would have been equipped with a blue LED. On top of the micro-fins there is a metallic blue plate which adds a bit of class to the cooler. The top of the heatsink also shows the direction of airflow with the arrows.

From above, the blue fan shroud adds structural rigidity while offering a place to mount the fan. It does not do much to direct airflow other than creating a bit of a plenum behind the fan. The fan is a ball bearing type with seven blades and is UV reactive. The UV reactive impeller rotates at 2300RPM, producing a decent airflow. It draws power from a standard 3-pin motherboard connector that supports RPM monitoring. The fan wires are also sheathed.

The base of the Spire VertiCool II CPU cooler is protected by a soft plastic cover. Before installing the VertiCool II 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.

The copper base is very smooth, but it is not perfectly flat. There is some slight waviness, probably due to the polishing operating but nothing that a little thermal compound can't deal with. I don't know how much this actually improves cooling, but it sure looks good and will inspire confidence in most users. As you can see that cooler comes pre-attached with the Intel mounting hardware. But removing them for an AMD setup was easy and painless.

The LGA775 and K8 clips are held in place with a small screw into the copper base. A stiff steel support on the top is resilient enough to resist the force loads during installation. Furthermore, each mounting screw is spring tensioned. The LGA775 and K8 mounting hardware swaps out in a few seconds with the aide of a screwdriver. An outstanding design by Spire that easily supports both platforms.