Evercool HPKC-10025EA CPU Heatsink Review

Back in March, I had the pleasure of reviewing the newly released Thermaltake Silent 1156 CPU Cooler. Just to refresh your memory, the Silent 1156 was one of hermaltake's first ventures into the realm of low noise coolers, giving users an option of not only decent performance heatsinks, but also striking a balance with a very attractive price tag. Today, we will be reviewing the Evercool HPKC-10025EA CPU Cooler. Evercool is once again a new face to the APH Networks review line up (Seems like we've had a lot of these recently haven't we?), and like some of the previous reviews we have done, this is another budget-oriented heatsink. The HPKC-10025EA cooler is designed for AMD sockets K8, AM2, and AM3, as well as Intel's Socket 1156. It features a low profile design using what is referred to as Heatpipe Direct Touch technology, a 100mm fan on top, and four 6mm diameter heatpipes in a more conventional CPU cooler configuration. The HPKC-10025EA is designed for cases with less than adequate clearance room for a large tower-style cooler such as the Thermaltake Frio reviewed last week by Jonathan Kwan. Unlike the standard tower cooler implementation found in the Frio and Silent 1156, the Evercool we are reviewing today takes a totally different approach to the very common tower style heatsink we see so often. Fairly priced at approximately $25 at press time, how will the Evercool HPKC-10025EA step up against budget tower heatsinks such as the Thermaltake Silent 1156? Will the direct touch heatpipe design and use of four 6mm heatpipes enable Evercool provide a nice performance boost to the system? We will be pushing this cooler to its limit with our Intel Core i7-860 processor -- so read on to find out!