Reeven Ouranos RC-1401 Heatsink Review

A driving principle of being a hardware enthusiast is using your acquired knowledge to get the most from your system.  That isn’t to say you need top of the line hardware or even color match your gear, the point is to have fun and build what you need.

In this review I’ll be looking at the Reeven Ouranos tower style heatsink.  Reeven is a relatively new cooler and PC accessory company with a good variety of products to fit just about every type of system and cooling need.  The Ouranos is a 140mm tower cooler that features a total of six heatpipes in a staggered array that loops from one end of the radiator to another.

The Ouranos features a decorative top plate that not only covers the heatpipe array but features a few laser cut details including the Reeven logo.  This is a nice addition considering that this is one of the items you can easily see through a windowed side panel.

To get a look at the heatpipe array we turn to the bottom of the heatsink.  Here you will find where the heatpipes pass through the cold plate and enter the radiator.  It can also tell you a lot about how a heatsink will perform.  For instance the centermost heatpipe(s) are sized at 8mm and enter the radiator along the edges.  These will handle the bulk of the heat load and are positioned to receive the majority of the airflow.  The remaining four heatpipes are smaller at 6mm and positioned further way from the CPU core and towards the center of the radiator.   These will handle overflow heat and allow the heatsink to work in stages.

The heatsink base (or cold plate) is quite large for additional heat capacity and featured a machined base with a micro texture for good dispersion of thermal compound.  It was interesting to see that the base of the heatsink is flat one direction and yet features a slight dome the other.  This results in a line across the CPU that makes good contact along the center while the outer edges must rely on thermal compound.  On smaller CPUs like the LGA 115x this can be beneficial however reduces efficiency on larger CPUs like the Haswell-E.

A rather unique feature of the Ouranos is how the heatpipes are pushed over as they enter the radiator.  This was done to create some additional clearance on the fan side of the heatsink and maximize the area allowed around the CPU socket.  The intent of this cooler is to be a single fan design but comes with the option to install a second for additional performance. 

Looking through the radiator you can see just how widely the heatpipes are spaced in the Reeven Ouranos.  Having them further apart tends to increase thermal performance by creating turbulence and places for the passing air to loiter and pick up more heat.