INTRODUCTION

   Enthusiasts, hardcore gamers, overclockers and professionals may all belong in different segments of the market but they do share some similarities one of which is that they usually spend quite a bit in order to get one of the many CPU cooling solutions in the market from regular air coolers and A.I.O systems up to custom watercooling kits and in some extremely rare cases even external Freon units. The same however doesn't apply for casual users who're always looking for a regular CPU air cooler with the best possible balance between value and performance. Luckily compared to even just 5 years ago there's a vast number of such models in the market currently and one of the most recent ones is the H7 by Cryorig.

   Officially founded in 2013, CRYORIG is a fresh new comer to the PC peripherals and Cooling market with a core team of seasoned veterans. The team’s resumes include experiences with renowned brands such as Thermalright, Prolimatech and Phanteks. The members are overclockers and PC modding enthusiasts, with a passion to strive for nothing but the best. With the long experience and drive for innovation and improvement, CRYORIG is about applying RESEARCH and innovative IDEAS making the coolest GEAR possible.

   Much like the H5 Universal model which we reviewed a while back the H7 features Cryorig's proprietary Hive Fin design (improved airflow levels), offers zero clearance issue with memory modules and mainboard components and uses the X-Bar mounting system for fast installation. Unlike the H5 which came wearing the XT140 140mm PWM fan Cryorig has paired the heatsink of the H7 with their QF120 120mm PWM high-speed fan. Unfortunately although the H5 uses a normal thickness fan due to its smaller size, the size of the heatsink and less available heatpipes (3/6 vs 4/8) it most likely sits beneath the H5 model in terms of performance so i wouldn't pay much attention to the numbering used by Cryorig. What matters most is cooling efficiency and not the model name so let’s see whether or not the H7 delivers as advertised.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

Almost the entire fascia of the box is covered by a large product picture.

The main features are listed in detail on the right side of the box.

Complete product specifications along with socket compatibility are printed at the rear of the box.

Once you open the box Cryorig lists the reasons as to why you should register this product.

The cooler is a formed piece of cardboard as is the rest of the bundle.

Along with the Cooler CRYORIG also bundles a thermal paste tube, two extra fan clips, two installation guides (for Intel and AMD), mounting hardware warning paper, backplate and all the necessary screws and hardware required for installation on Intel LGA 1150/1155/1156 and AMD AM2/AM2+/AM3/AM3+/FM1/FM2/FM2+ mainboards.

THE H7

The H7 is yet another mid-sized CPU cooler since along with the 120mm pre-mounted fan it weighs 710g and measures 98mm in width, 123mm in length and 145mm in height.

The top fin is black and has the company logo printed on it (there’s also a hole in the middle used to install the mounting hardware).

The heatsink consists out of 40 aluminum fins (each 0.4mm thick) bend on both sides to hold air inside and thus further improve cooling efficiency.

The proprietary Hive Fin design should improve cooling efficiency always according to CRYORIG.

This time over CRYORIG has used a standard thickness 120mm PWM fan that can spin up to 1600RPM (+-10%) to produce up to 49CFM of airflow with just 25dBA of noise.

The H7 features a total of four 6mm nickel-plated copper heatpipes.

As you can see although polished the base of the heatsink doesn't feature a mirror like finish.

TEST BED

TESTING METHODOLOGY

   As we have stated in the past the Intel I7-3770k system is not placed in our lab and so it's obviously not our primary choice when testing CPU Coolers. Still since HTPC oriented models shouldn’t be used with our overclocked Core I7-3930k we have decided to take this path whenever one such model lands at our doorstep. As always our first concern is ambient temperatures so once again we keep the room temperature to around 21-23 degrees (not really hard but unfortunately not 100% accurate as in our lab) and as always to successfully record the load temperatures we use the latest OCCT application (for around 6-10 minutes) to push the processor to its limits so we can record its temperatures. After that is done we wait for about 10-20 minutes for the CPU to cool down and record the idle temperatures. This is done to allow time for the thermal conductive material to achieve the optimal performance level. Same procedure was then repeated with the Passmark BurnIn Test as a failsafe just in case the OCCT results were off. As many of you have pointed out time and again this procedure takes a lot more time than the usual peltier/thermometer tests but this way not only can we deliver real world results based on real CPUs but we can also triple check the results using a variety of programs. Last but not least the temperatures are recorded using both the latest versions of AIDA64 and RealTemp while the noise level tests are performed using a high precision ExTech HD600 Decibel Meter placed about 10-15cm above the CPU Cooler.

TEST RESULTS

CONCLUSION

   I have to confess that we actually received the H7 roughly 2 months ago and when we did and finished taking the shots I couldn’t understand why Cryorig would name this the H7 when it’s smaller and because of this wouldn’t be able to compete with the H5. To this day I still don’t know the why but what I do know is that unlike the H5 the H7 is targeted towards low to mid-end systems and thus there was no other way but to be smaller than the H5. Of course even so it’s still larger than most similar solutions and that gives it an obvious advantage as you can clearly see from our charts but unfortunately socket compatibility could/should be better.

   So how much does the H7 CPU cooler cost? Well as we speak you can find it for quite less compared to the H5 and more specifically for USD34.50 inside the USA (Newegg.com) and at around 35Euros inside the EU. Things however are not clear cut since although smaller than the H5 and many other similar solutions the H7 is larger compared to the Macho 90 by Thermalright or the NH-D9L so it may not fit (at least not as easily) in some tiny mini-ITX/ATX cases. On the other hand its size allows it to outperform the “smaller” models with ease so if it fits then it’s a better solution overall which is why it gets our Golden Award.

PROS

- Very Good Build Quality
- Good Performance
- Zero Clearance Issues
- Overall Size
- Can Add a Second Fan (Clips Included)
- Easy Installation

CONS

- Socket Compatibility