Reeven Steropes RC-1206
Low Profile CPU Cooler

Another product from the newcomers REEVEN but if they keep it up that would change fast into a very known brand in no time.
Today we are looking at their low profile cpu cooler for small form-factor systems and home-theater PCs – the Steropes.

We were curios about their naming scheme so everything might make sense if you have a general understanding of Greek and Roman mythology.

First about REEVEN :

REEVEN is a newly established international manufacturer of PC related products.

They run under the slogan “Don’t think. Feel it!”.

Regarding price, we were told to expect pricing to fall in the mid 40’s range.

Presentation and specification

This is a niche product built for small form factor systems.

– Model Number: RC-1206 / RC-1206b (AM1 compatible)
– Socket INTEL: LGA 775 / 1150 / 1151 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366
– AMD: AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / AM3+ / FM1 / FM2 / FM2+ / AM1(RC-1206b only)
– Overall Dimension: (W)125 x (H)60 x (D)129mm
– Fan Dimension: 120 x 120 x 12mm
– Heatpipe: Ø6mm x 5
– Fan Speed: 500 ~ 2000RPM
– Air Flow: 12.13 ~ 45.47CFM
– Static Pressure: 0.004 ~ 0.053inchH2O
– Noise Level: 9.32 ~ 33.67dBA
– Weight(with Fan): 470g

Packaging and content

As you would expect the box itself is very small measuring at 16.51 cm in length, 13.97 cm in width, and 7.62 cm in height.
Nice black and yellow tone for the box design with self explanatory details and specs on all sides.

Inside we are greeted by the fan that being so bright yellow kinda’ says “Oh, hello there”.

We have the cooler itself and we notice that some of the assembly work has even been done for you, such as the pre-attached fan and the Intel clips on the mounting arms. This will save users time and makes the cooler a little easier to install.

Then the accessories box which contains:

5x Mounting arm screws
5x Screws of Intel mounting arm clips (4 pre-attached)
4x Mount screws
4x Backplate screws
4x Silicon washers for backplate screws
4x Intel back plate screws
4x AMD back plate screws
2x Intel mounting arms
2x AMD mounting arms
1x Packet of thermal compound

And the installation manual:

Let’s focus on the cpu cooler.
On this side we have the main 5 heatpipes and down below a secondary heatsink for increased cooling performance.
And the 120 mm x 120 mm PWM 15 blade fan. This thin low-profile fan keeps the cooler’s overall height at a low 60 mm. The fan has an RPM range of 500-2000 and its model number is RM1212S208-P.

As accustomed so far by Reeven products we see a high level of attention to details – for example a cover metal plate with their logo.

We counted 73 aluminum fins that compose the Steropes.
And the base itself which is smooth and flat and comes with a decent finish. While not polished to mirror perfection, it still will get the job done quite well.

Installation

Ok, let’s install this little puppy, which you will see it is very easy.

First select the correct position for your socket via these screws – stock comes for 115x sockets.

Bolt the mounting arms to the heatsink.

Then slide the silicon washers onto the backplate screws and drop them in place.

Then sandwich it and put the last securing bolts and job done.

The installation was a breeze as said this is easier as it can get regarding difficulty.

Now to point out that we used a an mATX motherboard so you should at least take a second look so you don’t run into any surprises. For example in this orientation (the heatpies to a southbound orientation) the heatsink was hitting the headspreadesr form the memory modules (Crucial Tactical Tracers) but not the Kingston hyper X (that have not that tall heatspreaders)

But in this 3’o clock position the 5 heatpipes are on the limit of not disturbing the first memory module.

Usually even in an mITX build you will do your due diligence and get low profile memory modules so you are 100 %, if not as we discovered at least they should be not much over 1.30 inches.

And the finished installation. We might say it will stand out and looks very well even if you don’t have matching color schemes.

Testing methodology

The CPU will be tested in 2 main scenarios: at stock settings and then overclocked, both with a Prime 95 test run afterwards.

We used Prime95 as the ‘torture test’ with the option “In place large FFT” so it will use 100 % of the CPU power including the hyper threading feature.
Let it ran for 30 minutes and the let the CPU 10 minutes to cool , after which we measured the idle temperature.

To control the fans we used the auto feature of MSI’s own control center program.
To read the temperatures we used the AIDA 64 and Core Temp.

For the noise we used our Pyle PSPL01 placed 30 cm away from the setup.
Then we removed the video card and used the iGPU from the processor so more heat and to further eliminate any extra noise.
And we used the stock factory fans.

We compared the results with other coolers, tower and low profile.
But here all of them had a Noiseblocker eLOPP 120 MM PWM B-12P with CFM up to 78 at 2000 max RPM.

Any results over 80° C in any condition are considered a fail.
Let’s proceed.

Hardware used:

CPU: Intel i7 2600k TDP 95 W / then OC to 4.0 Ghz (limit of the motherboard)
Motherboard: Asus P8H67-M Pro
Memory Modules: 2x 4 GB DDR3 Kingston HyperX Fury 1866 Mhz + 2x 4 GB DDR3 Crucial tactical Tracers 1600 Mhz (all running at 1333 Mhz)
PSU: Seasonic S12II 500W
Storage: Crucial MX200 250 GB + Crucial BX100 250 GB
Graphics card: Gigabyte GTX 970 G1 Gaming
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 mATX
Case fans: Fractal Design 120 mm + Noiseblocker PL-PS 120 mm + P-P 80 mm

Comparison with other coolers:

Thermalright 120 Extreme
Reeven Ouranos
Scythe Kotetsu
Thermalrigh AXP-100R
Intel stock

Software:

Windows 7 Ultimate X64 SP1
Prime 95 v27.9
MSI Control Center v2.5.06
AIDA 64 Extreme Ed. V1.70
Core Temp v1.0 R6

Results

The Steropes as seen so far will do the job better that the stock Intel cooler but it can’t handle overclocking that much.
regarding noise output, despite it’s rpm, is still on the quite side.

A thicker fan would have offered better cooling performance, but such a fan would have, if even remotely close to 2000 RPM, also been louder.

Not much to say that if you are looking for a small form factor build and need some piece of mind, the Steropes under stock setting will save you.

Conclusion

This is a very good alternative that superseeds the Intel stock

The good:

+ Excellent build quality and attention to details
+ Very easy installation
+ Surprising good performance considering its small footprint
+ Silent operation
+ Great design
+ Good price

The bad:

– Not suited for high overclock
– The slim fan also influences the above
– No LGA 2011-3 socket compatibility but that’s for obvious reasons, to much TDP to handle
– The color scheme may not appeal to everyone but that’s a subjective matter

Overall it did its job quite well and thus it gets our:

Glob3trotters “Great Value Award” – 4 out of 5

Many thanks for REEVEN for supplying us this sample !