Hardware Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom Review

We take a look at the moutainous K2 cooler from Alpenföhn to see if its worth your money.
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cooling/2013/08/30/alpenf-hn-k2-mount-doom-review/1

 

Naming something meant to keep CPU cool after a hot, flaming, lava spewing volcano, what where they thinking.
And with only 5c separating the top 10 air HS, is there much reason to choose one over another ?
Especially when the case and fans used can make more difference than that.

 

If you can live with the small sacrifices concerning the name, the cooling performance and a little extra noise then this is definitely a cooler to seriously consider. It has to be said that it is one damn smart piece of hardware and in my opinion is far superior in that respect than all the other massively sized air coolers.

 

I will go on the off-topic route to make a simple question:
Why hasn't been a new AMD rig for tests purposes since the last one died?

 

The biggest problem for air-cooling your components is still the crappy interiror layout of PC-cases. If you have unhindered airflow from front to back of the case then you can lower the deltaT even more then by using these massive coolers with two or more fans attached.

Think of a 120mm diameter tube from front to back with the cooler inbetween. That's the best you can do actually and it's quiet easily doable with a flexible airduct. You wouldn't even need a front-intake or a fan attached to the cooler itself in that setup but only an exhaust in the back that draws the air through the duct.

 

Personally I think your idea is crappy, especially with smaller cases. A tube going from front to back just for CPU cooling airflow is cumbersome to say the least. It would block airflow from other devices moving around while also blocking any use for an intake fan in the front, for a storage drive caddy for example, not to mention make it awkward to get at your components and looking damn right fugly as hell.

 

Hmm, so is this just another name for the Deepcool Assassin and vice versa? I mean they are definitely the same cooler as everything is identical.

Here's the Deepcool Assassin:




I always find it very confusing when one product ends up having many different names.

 

Everything's just licensed from random Chinese OEMs these days, they just make it sound clever and German by re-branding it.

 

Yeah figured that was the case. There's certainly a lot of this going on, just ends up making things harder for the consumer when they're face with two identical products. Most of the people I know would then start to wonder which was "the most genuine" and end up buying something else because they don't find a suitable answer. I guess the number of people who do that must be pretty low though.

 

ODM's are pretty common place now days, i think it has something to do with local laws about foreign ownership, labor costs, and tax's

 

Taking this as an example I am not sure it is much of an issue. I have looked on Scan, Ebuyer and Overclockers and can't find DeepCool products. The only things I found were on Amazon after doing a general Google 'Shopping' search and it didn't list the Assassin. Sure, an image search found it easy enough but not a a product to buy in the UK so I am wondering if it is more of a case of the same product but different manufacturer and name for different retail locations?

 

Same manufacturer DeepCool (EKL AG), just different names for a product designed apparently collaboratively between them and Alpenföhn, im not even sure Alpenföhn has any facility's to manufacture anything them selves.

 

Talk about missing the point. The DeepCool Assassin and the Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom are the same product from two different manufacturers regardless of who actually fabricates it. My point is that you seem to be unable to buy both from the same retailers or even in the same country as each other which is why I was questioning the confusion point made by Maki role.

 

Talk about not knowing the difference between OEM's and ODM's

 

Well done Corky, I am sure it makes you feel a better person too. Yet you still continue to pick hairs about something that doesn't even affect the point I was making.

 

In a case with the PSU on the bottom you can place your HDDs in front of the PSU, not gettiing in the way of anything else.
Then you have two possible front-fans with the lower one for the GPU and the upper attached to the "tunnel".
An exhaust-fan in the top of the case and voilá... most efficient aircooling with only three casefans and the fan(s) of the GPU, all in a mid-sized ATX or even µATX tower. No blocking of anything there.

Apple used a setup like this with their G5s and it worked like a charm.

 

I still disagree jrs77 but without getting in to all the details of why I'll just simply say that if it worked and was feasible while still offering full access to components within the case then I am sure case manufacturers, or at least one or two of them would offer said solution.

 

Thank you IDK about feeling better, maybe i just didn't like your underhanded comment of "Talk about missing the point."
Perhaps you need to be clearer about the point you are attempting to make, as so far all i have seen is you treating other forum goers with contempt.

 

Im still not convinced why you would chose this over an all in one cpu cooler like the H100?