Introduction

Not too long ago, we reviewed the Spire KestrelKing III, an Athlon 64 cooler from Spire Technologies.

Today, we will take a look from Spire's Socket-478 line instead. This time, we will review their SP450B0 CoolGate cooler. The CoolGate is Spire's only Pentium 4 cooler that uses heatpipes in its construction. It is also noted for its side-mounted fan.

But before we go into the details, let's do a quick recap of the manufacturer.

Spire

Spire is a 13-year-old company with corporate offices in the US and production facilities in China. Spire is part of the Fanner Group, which is composed of two companies - Spire and Speeze.

Their product line is mainly focused on coolers for computers with a side of modding products (LED fans, CCFLs, etc.).

Packaging

The CoolGate comes in a blister pack that, amazingly enough, is easy to open up. No scissors is required to snip the edges off; just tear the two halves apart and the cooler is ready to pop out. The clear packaging shows the CoolGate in all its glory, ready to be mounted onto your processor.

This package design is evidently aimed at the retail market. Most people like to see what they're buying before any money changes hands.

Blister Pack

With the package opened, the two heatpipes on the side of the heatsink, as well as the sleeved power connector for the fan, are clearly visible.

Package Opened

After removing the cooler from the blister pack, you will find the clips for the heatsink, four screws used to attach the clips to the heatsink, a brief instruction sheet and a tube of thermal transfer compound.

The complete contents