Prolimatech Samuel 17 Low Profile CPU Cooler Review

Low profile CPU coolers are taking off in popularity these days as people look to build their own NAS systems, HTPCs and portable gaming rigs. With so many low profile CPU coolers out there it is easy to get overwhelmed but today we are hoping to simplify things a bit as we are taking a look at another low profile CPU cooler this time courtesy of Prolimatech. The Prolimatech Samuel 17 is a low profile CPU cooler boasting six 6mm heat pipes and support for an 120mm fan and it measures in at just 45mm tall before adding a fan. The Samuel 17 is Prolimatech's only low profile CPU cooler that they have ever made and they specifically market it for HTPC systems. With a whole host of competitors to the Prolimatech Samuel 17 (such as the Gelid Slim Hero, Scythe Big Shuriken 2, Noctua NH-L12 and so on) we are really hoping that it can deliver something good because the competition is pretty stiff these days in the low profile CPU cooler market. The packaging is pretty simple and compact thanks to the fact this unit does not include a fan. Specifications are detailed on the side. Other than that the box is quite plain. Included is a user manual and some further paste, plus... Lots of brackets for LGA 775, LGA 115X, LGA 1366 and AM2(+)/3(+). Additionally there are a range of screws for securing everything in place and some plastic spacers to prevent conductivity. The heatsink is actually pretty puny and even though it has six 6mm heat pipes you wonder how much they can realistically do. I look forward to being proven wrong though. The base is fed by six 6mm heatpipes that exit via a single side with the other side being capped. In my opinion (and based on my most primitive knowledge of thermal conductivity) I think it is better for the heat to be able to travel out both sides and from my experience CPU coolers that have capped heat pipes on the base tend to experience heat build up and have lower performance as a result. Again the results may prove me wrong so let's see. These six 6mm heat pipes bend and feed into a rather skinny little heatsink. I can see why Prolimatech haven't expanded the heat sink too far right to where the fan bracket extends because if they did that the Samuel 17 would encounter compatibility issues with some motherboard heatsinks depending on which way you mount it. The base looks pretty cool and those six 6mm heat pipes look very high performance indeed. Everything is nickel plated copper as far as I can tell. At 45mm high without a fan the Prolimatech Samuel 17 is one of the thinnest low profile heat sinks on the market. The fan we used was provided with our review sample and it was the Prolimatech Blue Vortex 12 LED. This is a standard 25mm thick 3 pin fan. We hooked this up to our motherboard and tuned it to the standard PWM profile of our motherboard using ASUS Fan Xpert II. Installing the fan is done with the provided fan screws onto the pre-attached fan frame for 120mm fans only. The fan adds 25mm to the height taking it to 70mm. You could use a slimmer fan but you'd see a drop-off in performance. For the installation you have to attach the brackets of your chosen socket. Then you screw the provided spring-loaded screws through the motherboard with spacers into the attached brackets to secure the cooler in place. We chose to mount with the fan overhang over the motherboard heatsink as this gives the best RAM compatibility. Here you can see you easily have enough clearance for four fully sized RAM modules. Motherboard heatsink clearance was fine because the Samuel 17 stays within Intel socket when mounted the right way (that is with the heatpipes facing either the way with have them or facing the PCIe lanes. We always use the same test system and tests with CPU coolers that we compare against each other. The full specifications of our test system are as follows: Test system: ASUS P8Z77-V, LGA 1155 socket, Z77 chipset Intel Core i5 3570K with Gelid GC Extreme under the IHS 8GB G.Skill Trident X 2400MHz DDR3 AMD Radeon HD 5870 1GB 128GB Kingston SSDnow V100 (Boot Drive) and Samsung F3 1TB (storage) Antec High Current Gamer 620W Cooler Master Test Bench v1.0 We’d like to say a big thank you to ASUS, Antec, Kingston, Cooler Master and Intel for providing components that makes this testing possible. Testing Methodology: We always use Gelid GC Extreme thermal paste to make sure testing reveals the efficiency of the tested coolers not the efficiency of the bundled thermal paste. Prime 95 is run for 10 minutes and then the average maximum temperatures as recorded by CPUID HWMonitor are noted The average temperature across the four cores is taken on our quad core processor Fans are mostly left to operate at default PWM profile speeds and with maximum fan speed for reference.If PWM functions are not supported then fixed fan speeds are used and sometimes a low noise adapter if appropriate/provided. If fixed fan speeds or low noise adapters are used it will be clearly pointed out either on the graphs or in the write-up. All default result entries on graphs are for PWM performance unless otherwise specified. A variety of fan speed results are done for a particular product review and then removed from the graphs in future reviews of other products to avoid clutter. If you would like to see more fan speed results for a particular product please check its individual review. For watercooling tests all pumps have been operated at 12 volts directly from the power supply Delta temperatures are always used (Observed temperature minus ambient temperature) and we keep the ambient at 22 (+/- 1) degrees for all testing . Delta temperatures should correct for any marginal ambient differences between 21-23 degrees. Acoustic measurements are taken 10cm horizontally away from the CPU cooler with the VGA fan disabled, hard drive in idle and power supply isolated. These are taken at desktop idle and Prime95 load. The cooling performance tests are run at stock 3.4GHz (with Intel Turbo up to 3.8GHz) and overclocked 4.5GHz (1.35v) settings. Voltages are fixed to prevent inaccuracy between comparisons. All other coolers in the graphs have been tested under identical settings so are fully comparable. Each test is repeated 3 times with 3 remounts for consistency of results There is approximately a 1 degree celsius margin of error in our temperature recording software CPUID HW Monitor There is approximately a 1.5dBA margin of error with our Benetech GM1351 decibel meter Software Used CPUID HWMonitor Prime 95 Recently with our graphs we have acquired so many results for various CPU coolers that we've started to narrow down graphs to the specific market segment of the product we are testing. This is because we cannot fit all the results in one graph and it would get too cluttered to be useful. We currently have four main categorisations for CPU coolers that are: Budget CPU coolers (sub £40 in typical RRP) Low Profile CPU coolers (Often top-down design, but any CPU cooler that is designed to be small) Water cooling AIO CPU coolers (Both closed loop and expandable water CPU coolers that come pre-built - no custom kits) Performance Heatsink coolers (Heatsinks designed for performance, typically cost upwards of £40) In all these graphs we will have a few "reference" results of particular products that do not fit within that category for comparitive purposes, e.g. the Corsair H90 as a reference result in the budget CPU cooler graphs. At stock we saw performance well behind the Big Shuriken 2 which is my eyes this products main competitor as it also has six 6mm heat pipes and a thinner 120mm fan that should put the Big Shuriken 2 at a disadvantage but it walks away a clear winner. The Samuel 17 was very quiet though there are quieter options such as the Slim Hero, Big Shuriken 2 and NH-L12. Overclocking furthered my disappointment. The Prolimatech Samuel 17 barely matches the much cheaper (almost half the cost) Gelid Slim Hero. Furthermore the Scythe Big Shuriken 2 costs about the same when you factor in the cost of a fan and you can see the Big Shuriken 2 just runs away with it. Acoustics were pretty quiet, but again the story is the same - there are quieter options. In terms of height we tested with a normal fan and you can see it is taller than both the Big Shuriken and Slim Hero, yet the extra height doesn't bring extra performance. With a slimmer fan we would see similar height levels but probably a drop off in performance. Unfortunately I don't see the height being a redeeming feature for the Prolimatech Samuel 17. Prolimatech's Samuel 17 low profile HTPC CPU cooler costs around £32.99 in the UK and €40 in Europe. At this price you still have to consider you will need to supply your own 120mm fan which will cost you another £5-10 depending on what kind of 120mm fan you actually buy. That said the price is more like £40 or €50 which easily puts this in competition with both the Noctua NH-L12 and and Scythe Big Shuriken 2, although you can buy Samuel 17 CPU coolers pre-fitted with fans at Overclockers UK for as low as £37 which is a pretty good deal. Furthermore it is also priced close to the NT06 Pro though the Samuel 17 is much smaller so these two aren't strictly comparable. The Gelid Slim Hero is also an honourable mention as it performs close, within a couple of degrees at equivalent noise levels, yet costs around half the price and is the same size if not a bit smaller. I think it is clear already then that I am starting to doubt the value for money of the Prolimatech Samuel 17 and there are clearly better options on the market both in terms of performance and value for money. Furthermore I feel that the design of the Samuel 17's heatsink is flawed because it is just too small and thus cannot allow for adequate cooling performance. Furthermore because Prolimatech have sunk the heatsink so low they can't actually expand it in width because it will start to hit motherboard heatsinks. I think their best option would of been to raise the heatsink higher - literally by about 5mm and then give this unit a much wider heatsink and a half thickness 120mm fan. This way they'd have more heatsink to provide more cooling performance, and bundling a fan with it would allow them to reduce the cost to the consumer. It is also worth noting that when I say this unit has 100% RAM compatibility, it has to because even "normal" height RAM modules wouldn't fit if the heatsink hung over the memory lanes. Pros Compact and small Attractive Good Build quality Full tube of included thermal paste Cons Heatsink should give more clearance, needs to be raised higher Mediocre cooling performance, many better options for the same price No included fan, expensive to buy your own Subjective Issues Fan overhang on the heatsink - cools VRM or wasted airflow? eTeknix says: The Samuel 17 is Prolimatech's first venture into the low profile CPU cooler market and it isn't an good start. The Samuel 17 just doesn't square up with the competition and is left trailing in the distance. In providing six heat pipes on such a small heatsink it actually performs like it has only two or three heat pipes - the six heat pipes appear as form over function and make little impact on performance. Furthermore Prolimatech's decision to not include a fan makes the Samuel 17 unnecessarily expensive and means that most standard 120mm fans will make this taller than the competition, they should have added a slim 120mm fan to this product as standard. Thank you to Overclockers UK and CaseKing for providing us with this review sample.