Performance
The Raijintek Zelos is a very small and low profile cooler, with just a 90mm fan and a overall height of 44mm this cooler wasn’t ever going to break any records or do very well when we overclocked our system, its just not made for heavy load environments. This cooler is for HTPC style computers but unfortunately it does miss the mark. This can be seen in our test results, for example at stock under load it reached a 59-degree delta temperature. This compared to its slightly bigger brother, the Raijintek Pallas, is really poor.
From the results at stock, I didn’t expect the cooler to perform under a heavy load when we overclocked the CPU and I was right, I actually cancelled the test when it reached 100 degrees. The tiny heatsink and small fan just couldnt work hard enough to combat the rising temperatures and it just had to be turned off. It is a disappointment, competitors products such as the low profile Silverstone AR06 were able to complete this test.
When it comes to the noise levels of the cooler, it’s a completely different story, under load at stock, it was a whisper at only 39db. This would be ideal for your HTPC or media PC.
When overclocked its the same story, right at the top of the table for this little cooler. With a dB reading of 39db again, it might just be that the fan is at max speed, but is very quiet. Its a shame that it just isn’t powerful enough.
So it is very silent CPU cooler with very poor performance?
This thing is a piece of garbage, do not buy! The horrible design leads to having to use far more thermal compound than necessary. The stock cooler performs better, even if it is louder.