Reeven Okeanos and Brontes CPU Coolers Review

Okeanos Features and Cooler Design

Cooler Design

The Reeven Okeanos CPU cooler is the flagship cooler from Reeven. It is a high performance, dual tower and dual fan cooler featuring 120mm and 140mm fans, nickel-plated copper heat pipes and base plate, and two densely-finned aluminum radiators. The unit's six integrated heat pipes are constructed out of copper to optimize heat absorption from the CPU base plate and heat transfer to the aluminum radiators. The aluminum radiators were designed to facilitate optimal transfer of the heat from the heat-pipes to the air medium. The thin nickel plating encasing the base plate and heat-pipes give them corrosion and scratch resistance, while not inhibiting heat transfer between the cooler's components and the system CPU.

Courtesy of Reeven

The Okeanos' twin radiator towers were designed with a fin density of 13 fpi (fins per inch) with each tower being about double the thickness of a standard fan. The dual radiators' thickness add a immense amount of surface area from which to disperse the heat of the processor, requiring fans able to push a volume of air sufficient for optimal heat transfer. The fan placement is optimized to pull air through the front radiator and push it out the back. The combination of the front 120mm and middle 140mm fans work in tandem to increase the effectiveness of the cooler in its stock configuration, ensure strong and consistent airflow across the dual radiator fins. The radiator fins are not soldered to the aluminum fins, but are snuggly press fit for an effective transfer surface between the coolers components.

The side view of the Okeanos cooler gives a much better view of the optimizations Reeven designed into the cooler. The two outer heat pipes run along the outside edges of the the radiator with the thicker inner pipes running along its center. This adds stability and rigidity to the radiator towers without the need for side panels. The integrated heat pipes are designed in a U-shape configuration, terminating in each of the towers with center of each heat pipe passing through the copper base plate. The unit's base has center channel a center channel and integrated side slots to hold the steel mount bracket in place and providing equalizing downward force to hold the cooler in place.

The top-down view of the cooler gives a better perspective on the massiveness of the unit. Both radiator towers are capped with a top plate stamped with the Reeven corporate logo. The top plate is held in place with four rivet, one in each corner of the tower and going through several layers of the cooler for secure mounting. The unit's heat pipes terminate just under the top plate, maintaining the clean appearance of the cooler. Integrated into the sides of each radiator are the mount channels to fix the fan mounts in place. The wire fan holders have two set of straight sections that lock into the radiator side channels to firmly secure fans to the front and/or rear sides of the radiator.

The unit's base plate is a seamless copper plate with nickel-plating to prevent corrosion and surface scratches. The heat pipes run through the center portion of the base plate to ensure optimal heat transfer. The base plate is machined flat and polished to a mirror-like sheen, ensuring a near-perfect mating surface with the CPU. Notice that the heat pipes are of two sizes, the inner pipes being 8mm diameter pipes and the outer being 6mm diameter pipes. The thicker inner diameter heat pipes give the unit better heat dissipation than unit's using uniform heat pipes.

Cooler Motherboard Mounting

On a Z97 motherboard with a standard VRM heat sink design, the Okeanos fits well in the standard configuration with the airflow going towards the rear panel of the case. The front radiator tower does come close to the upper DIMM slot which will be discussed more below. Because the front mounted fan is 120mm, there is little in the way of spacing issues between it and the memory modules.

The closeup views of the cooler show that there are no compatibility issues between the coolers heat pipes and the board's VRM heat sinks. However, you do get a better view into the proximity of the front radiator to the upper DIMM slots.

With three fans installed on the cooler, there are no fit issues using the Z97 board. The rear fan could lead to space issues on a motherboard with upper and lower DIMM slot sets, but should be manageable by mounting the fan higher up on the radiator.

One of the challenges with this cooler comes in using the DIMM slots in close proximity to the cooler's radiators. With both the Z97 and X99 test boards, the DIMMs sitting in the slots closest in proximity to the radiator fit, but did some into contact with the front or rear surface of the radiator. With a Z87 board, the upper DIMM slot was totally unusable with the front radiator pushing forward on the DIMM module preventing proper seating.

The other challenge in using the cooler comes when attempting to mount it to a board with a tight, wrap-around VRM heat sink as shown with the MSI Z87 MPower motherboard. The rear heat pipes caught on the heat sinks to the right and left of the CPU socket, preventing proper mating of the cooler's block with the CPU surface.