Reeven Kelveros RC1202 Test and Review

The cooler arrived in a very small for the dimensions of the cooler carton box  all in black with lots of details and technical information about the product placed everywhere on the package. When I saw it for the first time I thought – nice, I got a new cooler with shape like the Batman logo. That doesn’t really matter but it is interesting.

So I saw the box and it was about time to open it and see for myself what’s inside. After I opened the package there were a few things that me smile.

Inside this small box first thing to notice was the Reeven advertising sticker, an install manual, X-type backplate and a small carton box which for sure was holding the mounting kit.

So, before I continue I want to mention that there are some interesting features about this product that I will share one by one in this review. So let’s check the cooler itself.

Like 90% of the coolers on the market this one is made of a huge radiator cooled by a 120mm fan. Nothing special for now. Cooler dimensions are: W130 x H160 x D79mm and weight 755g without the fan. So let’s get a closer look:

The cooler is made of aluminium heat sink with 4 cooper heat pipes with direct contact (Heatpipe Direct Contact Solution (H.D.C.S.)) with the processor. Two of them are Ø6mm and the other two are with diameter Ø8mm which is the first interesting detail about this model. On top of the cooler, heat pipes are covered with a fancy looking fin with the Reeven logo on it.

As every other cooler the heat is transferred from the base to the aluminium fins which are 60 offering quite interesting shape and structure. And this is the second interesting feature about this model.

Apart from the shape, the fins are with a very small gap between them and I believe they will require a fan with really big airflow and static pressure. But I will check the fan a bit later.

Before I continue with the review I think its time to check the cooling fan.

The fan used for cooling the cooler is Reeven Coldwing 120mm Performance PWM with low and high switch, which I already tested a few weeks ago and you can check the review here. The model provides really impressive airflow level and static pressure working at low to medium noise level for these revolutions per minute. As you can see, it offers 11 blades, a good looking black and yellow colour scheme, a PCI bracket with LOW-HIGH switch and is mounted to the cooler by 2 metal brackets. Unfornuatelly, this cooler can use only one fan.

I saw the cooler and it’s time to check what’s inside the second small package holding the additional elements needed for normal usage of the CPU cooler.

1. Manual for mounting the cooler on Intel and AMD platforms
2. Thermal paste
3. Universal backplate for mounting the cooler on Intel and AMD platforms
4. Mounting kits with screws
5. Reeven advertising materials
6. 2 metal brackets for mounting the fan

According to the technical details, the cooler can be mounted in vertical and horizontal position on Intel platforms and just horizontal position on the AMD motherboards.

1. Intel Socket: LGA 2011 / 1366 / 1156 / 1155 / 775
2. AMD Socket: FM1 / AM3+ / AM3 / AM2+ / AM2

To keep the tradition, before I move on to the test results, I would like to describe the system, used for the test:

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 620 at standard frequency of 2612 MHz and overclocked at 3640 MHz (at 1.5V) per core for the tests.

Motherboard: GigaByte 790X-UD3P

Video card: Sapphire 5830 Extreme 1GB DDR5 256bit

Memory: 2 x 2GB Apacer 800 MHz

Hard drive: Kingston SSD SV100S264G

Case: Cooler Master HAF 932

Power supply: Cooler Master Silent Pro 600

Cooler: Reeven Kelveros RC1202 and Prolimatech Megahalems

Thermal paste: Gelid GC-Extreme

Fans mounted on both coolers: Reeven Coldwing 120mm Performance PWM

The tests were conducted in a closed system with:

1. 230mm fan on the front panel putting fresh air in and spinning at about 700 rpm
2. 230mm fan on the side panel putting fresh air in and spinning at about 700 rpm
3. 230mm fan on the top panel taking hot air out and spinning at about 700 rpm.
4. Room temperature of about 29 degrees.

Testing procedure:

I will install Reeven Kelveros RC1202 and Prolimatech Megahalems in horizontal position (this is the only possible way for Reeven Kelveros RC1202) and do tests at default frequency 2612 mHz and overclocked frequency of 3640 mHz using one Reeven Coldwing 120mm Performance PWM.

So it’s time for some hardware swap.

First competitor to be installed was Reeven Kelveros RC1202.

With fan installed.

After the cooler was installed I noticed that even mounted in horizontal position all four DIMM slots can be used but only if RAMs are not with tall heat spreaders.

The results from the first tests are:

After I finished testing Reeven Kelveros RC1202 I had to install Prolimatech Megahalems with Reeven Coldwing 120mm Performance PWM:

The results from the second tests are:

All of the test results have been summed up in the following charts:

And the fan speed during the tests:

 

I guess it’s time to express my visions about Reeven Kelveros RC1202:

1. Reeven Kelveros RC1202- one of the most fancy looking coolers that I have ever touched. Not so big but still not so small. At the beginning of the review I was sceptic that it will perform good especially vs Prolimatech Megahalems known as one of the cooling titans. Well, what can I say…. I’ve finished the testing and my sceptic smile changed to an amazed one. The cooler performed really nice and I guess it would perform even better if there was an option to install a second fan. Watching those results with difference of 2 degrees tops make me sense a strong competition for Megahalems. All I can say to Reeven – great, great job!
2. About the noise – again very good. I’ve tested the fan separately and I was impressed by its performance / noise level and here is the same situation. Seems the fan offers quite a good airflow and static pressure to keep the cooler cool. Even rotating around 2000 revolutions per minute it’s still quieter than other models at the same speed. Let’s not forget that the fan is supplied with a PCI bracket with switch to choose LOW or HIGH modes.
3. Vision – first I was sceptic and I thought that this cooler is more like fancy looking piece of metal and that if I install leds behind it Batman will come, but now I take this product seriously. Yes, the structure is strange but is kinda cool and, most importantly, keeps the CPU cool.

As disadvantage I can point the lack of option to install a second fan.

According to my review, I’ve decided that Reeven Kelveros RC1202 deserves the following reward:

I thank Reeven for the samples!