CONCLUSION

   Although you can clearly see from our charts that the cooling efficiency of the HR-22 actually is as advertised things are not as black and white as they may seem. True the HR-22 is a passive CPU Cooler without any fans whatsoever so its noise levels are 0 but in order to achieve its optimum cooling efficiency it requires good airflow levels and the only way to get that is to have at least two system/case fans installed. Now the reason i'm saying just two is because you need at least one at the front of the case shucking air from outside and pushing it towards the HR-22 and one at the rear which you need to connect with the bundled airflow tunnel. With all the fans inside our case turned off the performance of the HR-22 was reduced quite a bit (in a fast test we recorder almost 67 degrees celcius under heavy load) and so although you can still use it like that and have a completely silent PC (providing of course that your graphics card is also passively cooled) we wouldn't recommend it for people who like to overclock their CPUs. Regardless of all that the HR-22 is indeed a passive CPU Cooler which makes use of your system fans to come really close in terms of performance to some of the top CPU Air Coolers in the market today and we see nothing wrong with that.

   All the top CPU Cooler models cost quite a bit and although the HR-22 is a Fanless solution still its large size propels its cost something which is clear from its current retail price tag set at USD89.90 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and 72.99Euros inside the EU (PC-Cooling.de). So if you happen to cherish silence and you would like to have a silent PC then the HR-22 is the obvious solution as long as you're not very much into overclocking. For serious gamers, enthusiasts and overclockers the HR-22 may not be the ideal choice right from the factory but by adding one or two fans you can always boost its performance even more and to levels comparable with the best CPU Air Coolers in the market as we speak. However our job is to "judge" the HR-22 based on its advertised passive cooling efficiency and since we feel it did remarkably well we are awarding it with our Platinum Award.

PROS

- Excellent Build Quality
- Passive Solution (0dBA)
- Cooling Efficiency
- Design (No Clearance Issues)
- Bundle Contents 

CONS

- Price (For Some)