PC cooling is at the heart of the PC Master Race. When it comes to longevity of the hardware particularly the heart and the mind of any PC, that is the CPU. Users tend to invest in a good cooling solution. These days there are a variety of coolers falling in particularly four broad categories:

• Air Coolers
• AIO
• Hybrid Coolers
• Custom Loop

There are pros and cons of each type. Most of the air coolers tend to be bulky and taking up much space. This puts pressure on the motherboard’s PCB and on the CPU as well. Skylake was one of the examples where many damaged CPUs were reported due to the sheer weight of the cooler. Not to mention the compatibility issues of the air coolers with RAM, the first PCIe slot and the chassis itself. AIO/Hybrids/Custom Loop would clear that space around the CPU socket but many users avoid them for the fear of leakage.

While the market for the coolers may seem saturated, it is surprising to find more competitive offerings from the old players and new players alike. Recently, during CES 2017, EVGA, a well-known Nvidia’s AIB partner has announced their AIO coolers for CPU. EKWB is known for its top-notch, quality components in liquid cooling under the custom loop. The company introduced their unique AIO in 2015.

REEVEN was established with a simple concept in mind: creating “Perfect user experience” in the computer market. It all started at a small office in Taiwan back in 2009, with a group of experienced and passionate engineers. Today, REEVEN is one of the most well-known suppliers of high performing computer components, holding numerous top-grade reviews and ratings. REEVEN stays true to founders’ ideas of creating and designing products with Profession, Quality, and Value, and always being open to ideas and suggestions from the customers.

Today I will be reviewing the third cooler from the Reeven. It is Hans RC-1205. Earlier, I had reviewed their Ouranos RC-1401 and Justice RC-1204 and they left quite a good impression. HANS is a compact tower CPU cooler with a single 120mm fan and 4 nickel-plated heat pipes.

Product: Hans RC-1205

Manufacturer: Reeven

Price: $30.50 at the time of the review

Specifications

Packaging and Contents

What do these names strike for, Ouranos, Justice, Hans, Okeanos? If you have a thing for mythology then it would occur to you that Reeven’s coolers are based on the names of the gods from Greek Mythology. With each one having a unique power or speciality, likewise, the coolers are designed and named accordingly.

The cooler comes in a dark maroon color cardboard box. The front side of the packing box has the cooler picture printed on it along with the model no and name printed on top of it.   Reeven logo is printed on the top right side. Cooler’s compatibility with Haswell CPUs is printed on the bottom left side. LGA 1151 Ready label can be seen clearly outstanding from the other compatible sockets listing.

On the back side of the packing box, Cooler’s salient specs are printed in 7 languages along with the country of manufacturing. Diagrams of the Cooler are printed on the top side showing the dimensions and the air flow direction.

The left side of the packing box has important instructions printed in two languages. Reeven’s website and contact email address are printed on the bottom left side. Info labels are printed on the bottom right side. Cooler’s model no and name is printed on the top right side.

The right side of the packing box has the cooler picture printed in the middle section. Cooler’s name and model no are printed on the top side. There are 4 diagrams on the bottom describing the salient features of the cooler like Slim Structure, 120 PWM Fan, 4 heat pipes each of 6mm and unique embossed fin design.

The top cover has the name and model no of the cooler printed in the middle. Salient highlights of the cooler are printed on the bottom and “Don’t think, feel it!!” is printed on the top.

Opening the box would reveal vertically layered placement of the Fan, the cooler and the accessory box.

Accessories

Reeven has included a plethora of accessories with the cooler ranging from mounting plates to manual to screws etc. Everything user could need is provided. Installation guide is thorough and very helpful for the first timer or novice builders. I really admire the approach taken by the Reeven when it comes to providing the mounting mechanism. All of their coolers carry universal mounting brackets. My motherboard still has the mounting bracket from the Reeven Ouranos RC-1401. Same has been used for the Reeven’s Justice RC-1204 and the Hans RC-1205.

Accessories include:

             2 Fan Clips

             1 Mounting Bracket

             1 Mounting Bar

             LGA775 Spacer

             4 Thumb Screws for LGA 2011 / 2011-V3

             1 Backplate for Intel (other than LGA 2011 / 2011-V3) and AMD sockets

             4 Backplate Bolts

             4 Silicon Washers

             4 Spacers

             4 Nuts

             2 Screws for Mounting Bar

             1 Wrench

Reeven Hans RC-1205 is a compact tower CPU Cooler having dimensions of 155 H x 133 W x 81.5 D in mm with the fan. The cooler has a monochromatic tone to it which is quite appealing and top fin plate is implemented differently as compared to the other offerings in the market. Top side is what would be literally visible once installed in a chassis. REEVEN is embossed on the fin in the middle. There are 4 screw type pipes on the four edges of the plate for heat dissipation.  Note the grooves on all four edges. These are air pass through passages. Clearly, Reeven did not leave any detail unattended, all this with yet very attractive and polished top plate design.

There are 52 fin plates which are dense and wide enough to ensure effective heat dissipation. The cooler has total 4 heat pipes coming out of the copper base with nickel plating. All the heat pipes are 6mm thick. A total of 8 heat pipes is going inside the fin stack from both sides of the copper base.

Reeven has implemented heat sink displacement effectively by ensuring that heat pipes make maximum contact with the fin stack at different places such as to ensure that maximum surface area is used for heat dissipation. But unlike their previous coolers that I have tested, the distance between two outer heat pipes is same and the distance between the two inner heat pipes is the same. But as the heat pipes are making point of contact with the fin stack at different places yet equidistant, heat dissipation is still good.

Bottom shows the large nickel plated copper base with 4 heat pipes on each side coming out of the base. A warning label is printed on the protective sheet informing the user to remove this label before mounting the cooler. Heat pipes are soldered right into the base. The base is implemented in two parts. The bottom section is a base plate with heat pipes coming out of it and there is a large size block on top of the base plate.   Dimensions of the copper base are 42mm x 11mm x 31mm (L x H x W) approx.

The Reeven Hans RC-1205 has the slim structure without any offset design. This slim structure ensures the clearance with respect to the RAM as it does not overhang them. I did not encounter any such limitation on my Corsair Vengeance RED LED DDR4 kits. More on it in the Compatibility section later.

The cooler is supplied with one ColdWing 12 fan which is 120mm or 12cm fan. It is a square type implementation.The fan has sleeve bearing with part no RM1225S15B-P. It operates on 12V and takes 0.25Amps. There are 11 fan blades painted in Reeven’s traditional yellow color while the frame is in black color.

Though it looks pleasant but looks are subjective and this color scheme can be a serious consideration for colored theme builds. They are suitable for yellow/black or black only based color themes. The power cable of the fan is approx. 300mm long and is fully sleeved which does look good but my personal preference is non-sleeved flat cables. No complaint there but only a personal preference. Please note that power cable length on standalone ColdWing 12 fan is approx. 500mm.

Arrow indicator marks are marked on the side where fan power cable is coming out. The horizontal arrow (parallel to the frame of the fan) is showing the fan blades movement direction and the vertical arrow is showing the air flow direction.

The fan can be mounted on the cooler using the two supplied fan clips. Once clips are latched on the cooler, the fins making the point of the contact with the fan clips bend.

To test the cooler, Asus Rampage V Edition 10 based on socket LGA 2011-V3 (X99 platform) was used. On this socket, there is no need to install the backplate but for AMD and Intel LGA 115x/1366 sockets, backplate would be required. I started with thermal paste. Cooler Master MakerGel Nano Ultra was used to ensure the standardization among all coolers tested on my test bench. Pea size method was used. The paste was even spread using applicator on the IHS of the CPU (Intel 6850k).

Next, the 4 thumb screws were installed in the pre-drilled holes of the motherboard.

Next, mounting plate was placed on the screws. Take care while installing the mounting bar. The cooler can be mounted vertically or horizontally subject to clearance from the top of the PC Chassis and the first PCIe slot. Cooler’s width is 133mm which made is needless for vertical mount. The cooler was installed in the horizontal orientation.

Next, 4x nuts were put on the top of each thumb screw above the mounting bar and use supplied wrench to tighten them to the end of the torque.

The inner side of the cooler base has mounting support for the mounting plate. Place the mounting plate such that its raised edges fit inside the grooved area on the inner side of the base. Printed REEVEN on the mounting plate should be facing upwards. So far we have a standard mounting procedure for all the Reeven’s coolers.

Next, place the cooler on the top of the CPU such that screw holes on the mounting bar align with the mounting plate. Use the two supplied screws for mounting bar to secure install the cooler. Don’t screw fully from one side rather use few torques at a time on both sides and maintain pressure on the center of the cooler otherwise cooler can be installed incorrectly and thermal performance could suffer. Supplied screws are not spring loaded.

Compatibility and Clearance

Before digging in the test bench and results, I would like to share few words on the compatibility of this cooler with the Chassis, the RAM and the first PCIe slot.

Clearance with Chassis

Though Reeven is calling this cooler as a compact cooler, its height is still 155mm with a fan. Cooler is compact from its width. Users would need to check the specs on the chassis to see if the cooler can be fitted inside that chassis. For example, Corsair 780T has clearance for the CPU cooler up to 200mm height. Corsair 570X has a clearance of up to 170mm height. Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ATX has clearance up to 194mm. All these chassis can accommodate this cooler easily.

Clearance with first PCIe Lane

The cooler has good clearance from the first PCIe lane. Asus ROG Strix Rx 480 O8G Gaming OC Edition was installed in the first slot no compatibility issue was observed.

Clearance with RAM

Out of the box, this cooler has as such no RAM Incompatibility. My Corsair Vengeance RAMs have a height of 49mm. As the fan on the cooler does not sit or overhang the RAM, there is absolutely no RAM incompatibility what so ever.

Following test bench was used for testing this cooler: –

• Asus Rampage V Edition 10
• Intel i7 6850k
• Corsair Vengeance RED 4x8GB @ 2666MHz
• Asus Strix Rx 480
• Samsung 840 EVO 250GB SSD
• WD Black 6TB
• Corsair AX1200i

Following coolers were used for comparison:

• Corsair H100i V2
• Noctua NH-U14S [Single Tower, Single Fan]
• Cryorig R1 Ultimate
• Reeven Ouranos RC-1401 [Single Fan and Double Fans]
• Reeven Justice RC-1204 [Single Fan and Double Fans]

Cooler Master MasterGel Maker Nano Ultra was used during all tests.

Following software were used for the testing and monitoring.

• Asus Real Bench v 2.44
• Real Temp GT v 3.70

Testing was done on Microsoft Windows 10 x64 Pro edition.

Methodology

Ambient temp of 20C was maintained with delta correction of +/-1C. All reported temps are in degree Celsius. Below is the table for the settings used:

CPU core voltage was set to manual to avoid the voltage spikes and to ensure the standardization among all tests for better calibration of the data. Fans were set at PWM with Turbo mode and were left at PWM mode to control them as per the load. No custom fan curve or max RPM were used in all tests.  Each cooler was tested on stock settings for 30 minutes stress run to take the temps readings. Minimum and Maximum values were recorded from the software. With overclocked CPU, the stress test was run three times on each cooler for 15 minutes duration with 30 minutes interval between each run to ensure that components cool down sufficiently before next run. This was important to take the near accurate readings of the temps. DRAM voltages were fixed as well.

Corsair H100i V2’s pump was set on High-Performance mode during all tests. Fans were not connected with the unit. Fans on H100i V2 were connected on the motherboard’s PWM header which was used for other coolers as well during complete testing.   Temps during gaming were also recorded with overclocked CPU for each cooler.

First off with the test run on stock settings, minimum temp was 22C on RC-1205. Idle temps really don’t tell the tale. Reeven Hans RC-1205 did max temp of 59C. Our test has three single towers out of which Hans is the second 120mm one but this is the only slim profile cooler that I have tested so far. Average temps were 57C. Temps are not bad for this compact tower cooler.

Next up is the result of stress test when CPU was overclocked to 4.40 GHz at 1.360 manual VCore. The Reeven Hans RC-1205 did a max of 84C which is 5C above the Reeven’s Justice RC-1204. The minimum temperature was 26C and the average temperature was 78C which is 6C above the Reeven’s Justice RC-1204.

Bear in mind that this is a compact tower cooler which makes its thermal dissipation capacity to be lower than the regular single tower or dual towers coolers. Intel’s i7 6850k has rated TDP of 140W. With 1.360V, this is a good thermal performance for a 120mm compact tower. 

Acoustic

Noise level was very impressive on this cooler. ColdWing12 are near silent fans even under load.

Reeven Hans RC-1205 is a 120mm compact tower CPU Cooler with one ColdWing 12 fan in the packing. The cooler is compatible with Intel LGA 115x/1366/2011/2011-V3 and all AMD sockets except AM4 for which company is offering a free upgrade AM4 kit. Being a slim profile cooler, it has zero incompatibility from the DIMM slots and the first PCIe slot. Its height is 155mm which is still high so user would need to check the depth of the PC Chassis to avoid any incompatibility. This cooler has 4 heat pipes each of 6mm. Cooler with ColdWing 12 fans has Reeven’s Black and the yellow colors on it. Though it looks nice but color coordination for themed builds can be an issue. Maximum air flow of the fan is 82.1 CFM with max dB rating of 29.8 which is very impressive. Cooler has a unique and very stylish top fin plate with REEVEN embossed on it and 4 corners of this plate have pipes making contact with the heat sink. I appreciate the Reeven’s approach of giving their users universal mounting bracket for all the coolers. This is their third cooler on my test bench. I have used the same mounting bracket from their first cooler which was Reeven Ouranos RC-1401 on all of the Reeven’s coolers tested on my test bench. All of their tested coolers have full support for all the major sockets from the Intel and the AMD. Even this compact tower cooler supports LGA 2011-V3 which is good.

Value

The price of the Reeven Hans RC-1205 at the time of this review is $30.50. This is definitely the best value one can have while looking at the performance numbers of this cooler.

Performance

The Reeven Hans RC-1205 was tested on Intel’s X99 platform with 6 cores chip. This chip is rated at 140W TDP. Consumer grade chips are usually rated between 84-91W TDP. The cooler was put to the task of cooling the chip with 1.360V @ 4.4 GHz and its performance was found satisfactory. Ideally, this cooler is best suited to the users who would be buying CPUs for use on stock or with a mild overclocking.

We are thankful to Reeven for giving us the opportunity to review their Hans RC-1205.