Spire TME III (TherMax Eclipse III) CPU Cooler Review

Spire bundle the TME III CPU cooler with a pair of 120mm nano-bearing fans. This dominates the side-angle aesthetics of the cooler since the fan efficiently covers the entire heatsink tower. Spire include a “mini-heatsink” on top of the CPU contact plate for extra heat dissipation, we also saw this on the Scythe Mugen 3 and it worked a treat there.

The TME III tower heatsink is quite fin (best pun ever….right), the dual 120mm fans add most of the thickness. The fans mount using rubber strips which I found although they can be tricky to mount, especially the bottom ones, they work a treat because there is no vibration noise at all.

The aesthetic is interesting, personally I would have preferred it if Spire capped all the heat pipes in an identical fashion so the top looks neat. I think having 5 capped and 5 uncapped is just a bit messy. The textured finish is pretty cool, a nice Spire logo in the middle would just give it the finishing touch.

The side is intriguing. Typically we’d see lots of aluminium heatsink fins which are open from all directions. Spire have close these heatsink fins from the side which means any air that goes through is more channelled as it cannot escape through the sides.

The base looks fantastic, those five 8mm nickel plated copper heat pipes are the biz. My only concern is that the “flattened heat pipe” design will reduce the performance of this cooler. That’s because it increases the possibility for variance in thermal paste application and as a result you might get clumping or build up in between the heat pipes because it isn’t entirely smooth. However, if you apply enough thermal paste to your processor and spread it evenly you should be okay for the most part.