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Bizarre Chinese CPU Cooler: Cylindrical Aigo Shadow Max V5 Review
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- Опубликовано: 14 авг 2024
- The Aigo Shadow Max V5 is an interesting, cylindrical tower cooler that supports AMD AM4 and Intel CPUs. We tested it versus stock AMD coolers and more, with interesting results.
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The Aigo Shadow Max V5 has one of the worst pressure maps we've ever seen -- actually, it probably just is the worst -- but although that indicates inefficiencies, it doesn't necessarily mean the cooler is bad. Our noise level testing, noise-normalized testing, and thermal benchmarks will help determine whether this cooler is worth buying for its unique appearance.
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RELATED PRODUCTS [Affiliate Links]
Aigo Shadow Max V5 on Amazon: geni.us/o7BRZWy
Noctua NH-U12S Redux on Amazon: geni.us/BnCTNY
Noctua NH-P1 Passive Cooler on Amazon: geni.us/iWsIW
Arctic Liquid Freezer II 280 on Amazon: geni.us/RJBy
Deepcool Assassin III on Amazon: geni.us/raEgp5
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - Unique CPU Cooler
03:03 - Disassembly & Up Close
07:42 - Getting Into the Testing
08:27 - Worst Pressure Map Yet
09:42 - Installation of Aigo Shadow Max V5
11:23 - 65W 35dBA Noise-Normalized Benchmarks
12:36 - 65W 100% Fan Speed & Noise
13:17 - 65W CPU VRM Thermals
14:36 - Conclusion
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Host, Writing, Test Lead: Steve Burke
Testing, Notes: Mike Gaglione
Video: Andrew Coleman
Video Production: Keegan Gallick
You might also like our Noctua NH-U12S Redux review we recently posted! This looks at a higher-end cooler in more heat load scenarios: ruclips.net/video/kgwuUupf1q8/видео.html
Well the Aigo is a good cooler, it is however NOT for any K skew, but hey if someone needs something to replace the factory intel lower end CPUs, its not bad. Perfect for something like a 11400 or lower. But thats about it. BTW, I am currently living in the Philippines and this brand is pretty big around here and most of SEA.
hey bro I want to buy a thermal paste for my laptop which is equipped with r5 4600h and a 1650 which paste should I go with which will give good thermals for 8-10 months without drying or pump out ,thermal grizzly kryonaut, artic mx 4 ,or noctua nt nh1
no dont show aigo stuff its been my secret stash of good cheap fans!
I think Snowman 6 Heatpipe 120mm was the best VFM when the shipping was free(Tech YES City tested it too back in 2019)
Please do the Vertoo V5....snd with 2nd fan added (that test is personal)...please.
Aigo (Chinese name 爱国者, direct translate “Patriot”, *not to be confused with “Patriot Memory” which is an American company), is kind of a big electronic brand that have no really specific specialization. They used to make MP3 player, now they still make MP3 players, recording pens, flash-drive, external drive, but also computer case, SSD, AIO Cooler, and cooler features in the video. (Appears they also make PSU too… *wink wink*)
They are big enough that they used to sponsor Formula 1 teams ( older black/sliver McLaren F1 team livery e.g. MP4-22 in 2007, MP4-23 in 2008, MP4-24 in 2009, MP4-25 in 2010, MP4-26 in 2011)
*They are a second tier brand for computer hardwares. Like I mentioned, they specialize on small consumer electronics. Their “flagship store” on Taobao features MP3/MP4, voice recorder, flash drives, keyboard/mouse, but no computer hardware at all. However, you can find dedicated computer hardware store sells their case, PSU, coolers.
reminds me of Medion =)
As for why they still make MP3/MP4 Player and recording pens… I guess it helps not having your phone when you set at lectures in collage/meetings . Sony still makes Recorder and Walkman too.
@@robertb1802 The problem is there is a American electronics company called Patriot (Patriot Memory funded 1985), which makes RAM and SSD. So I guess they chose Aigo to avoid trademark infringement. (Aigo funded 2003 according to Wikipedia)
Nice mate. You helped me to remember the aigo logo on the older McLarens.
@@hongzhanglim I actually didn't know that, it's likely a brand targeting western customers, just like "Deepcool"
GN: "Hot glue is a nice touch"
AIGO: "Cooler is a hit in America"
Makes me wonder: Can you build a cooling fan out of hot glue and an electromagnet?
well, it didn't exploded, thermally throttled or left anyone deaf, so it is better than gigabyte or dell
@Michaels Carport And hot glue for the thermal paste
I just want to voice my support of testing weird products that may not necessarily perform well, but are very interesting. Curiosity is a very human trait and I love seeing weirder things explored every now and then. I like your very scientific and methodical path to testing. And its great seeing oddball products put through their paces on a level playing field
I second this. I’d love to see more out there designs rigorously tested. Maybe there’s some pleasant surprises out there.
You will never be a woman
Parts and builds can get very stale. And for someone who really doesn't need to overclock their CPU especially when CPUs are so far off from bottlenecking right now, this cooler could work if you like the design. We need more unique designs and innovation with all parts.
I think this one falls under "If your not pushing the boundaries, you'll never make advancements". Very unique design. Would certainly like to see more like this.
Definitely feels like a design that could be massively improved with some better tooling and maybe some streamlining of the fin angle and mounting system. If this improves by a couple degrees it'd actually be quite competitive considering its neat design. Obviously still for lower end systems but hey.. those exist.
@@LeutnantJoker The centrifugal fan definitely needs to be taller to push air over a larger portion of the heatsink
you're*
@@xavierrodriguez2463 Problem is, they tried so hard to make it _not_ a radial fan that works on centrifugal acceleration but an axial fan that "scoops" the air inwards (which doesn't really work anyway) that the potential of this cooler is mostly wasted. At best, this fan functions as little more than a non-directional egg-beater that just sort of agitates the air in the immediate vicinity, with the cooling being little more than an accidental side effect.
What a weird and fun review. I'd dig more, especially if they have some interesting design choices like this one.
Definitely fun to do this one!
I agree. Always like seeing interesting and unique takes on pc components. While most might not work out, at least they are cool and a few might lead to a change in the future.
@@GamersNexus I'd like to see you mod it till its "good".
@@GamersNexus Aigo also have a case which you can write on the front panel. Of course the thermal is going to be quite bad... Only 50 bucks with temper glass side panel though!
Chinese "炫影5 涂鸦版"
@@GamersNexus You might want to block some of these bots that spam in the comments, that way they can't post comments on your videos
Aerocool also offer this same cooler under the name of the Aerocool Mirage 5, looks to be identical but with an infinity mirror "top plate" instead.
Thanks for pointing that out! Wasn't aware of that one. They likely share a supplier.
@@GamersNexus hey bro I want to buy a thermal paste for my laptop which is equipped with r5 4600h and a 1650 which paste should I go with which will give good thermals for 8-10 months without drying or pump out ,thermal grizzly kryonaut, artic mx 4 ,or noctua nt nh1
@@aringiri1946 artic 5 6 7 8
@@aringiri1946 just go with the thermal grizzly kryonaut its also pretty cheap
@@aringiri1946 go with arctic mx4. At the temps that laptops reach, kryonaut will dry out within two months and won't work too good.
Hey steve, I feel like it would really be beneficial to compare low end budget coolers with performance of hyper 212 (arguably the most popular and common coolers) so many users have a reference point they're familiar with. Despite that noctua performs well, i feel a lot less people uses that cooler compared to the hyper 212 thus is less relatable.
In this episode, Steve opens a can. Unfortunately, it isn't whoopass.
The shout-out to the old badass looking zalman coolers is all I needed for my nostalgia trip of the day haha. Pretty neat cooler though, it's nice to see companies come up with something different !
They looked like some mad scientist parts. I loved it
I so badly wanted one of those for my 1Ghz Thunderbird back in the day :D
Same! Had one of the flowers that I used for years over multiple systems.
I did a zalman styled build back in the day. Flower cooler on the CPU (a 3200+ I think) and a 9800 Pro GPU which came with a zalman cooler on it. Used copper foil to create accents inside the case and a white and copper motif on the outside. I hope I still have pictures of that somewhere.
Dude I had a Thermaltake V1 copper fin cooler, it looked nice barring the eventual oxidation lol
I personally love this kind of content! It's a very realistic "down-to-earth" scenario. Although not amazing, seems like an interesting option for flipping an old i5 with just the intel stock cooler on it. Gives the build a more modern look, is more attractive for buyers that want the RGB, it's cheap enough to justify, and it doesn't suck. More content like this? Yes, please! Love it!
Looks like you’re popular with the ladies bro
hmmm a device who's job is to move air doesn't suck? accidentally also a good backhanded compliment
I did exactly that. It looks flashy enough in advert pictures, and cooled an old 6500 more than enough.
@@gaijinkuri684 lmao
Aigo also sells RGB 120mm fan kits for a budget. With everything overpriced in South America I wouldn't mind buying 6 fans + controller from Aigo.
It looks like it would definitely benefit from some lapping of the cold plate. If the space around the bottom were closed off so air had to go out through the fins, that might help a lot
Lapping the cold plate on this thing is like polishing the front gate's doorknob of a burnt-down house.
It would be super to test if they could have been so close to getting it right. Steve if you get a chance, put a squirrel cage fan "like the one in a cars heater blower" inside it so that the air is drawn in through the fins and exhausted down. The exhausted air would also keep VRMs incredibly cool. The 6mm heat pipes and base plate look like they were built with quality materials. Although the base plate could probably benefit from being lightly lapped. I think the design would be a real performer if it had a proper fan to work with it's unique shape and design. Fun content and keep up the great work.
"It's surprisingly okay." -- glowing praise by Gamers Nexus standards.
All things considered, that's just short of a recommendation these days...
You can feel Steve wants to tell us he likes it
It didn't explode. Thumbs up compared to other junk.
Adequate - Steve 😀..
The performance was expected, but I do actually really like the look of hiding the cooler's fan inside the heatsink. I think this kind of design could have a lot of potential if it was iterated on. I'm imagining that, as you said, it could look really nice in a small form factor showcase PC.
Yeah, when think about something like that mounting bracket and the pressure on the CPU, it makes you wonder if a more competent/ambitious manufacturer couldn't put decent cooler based off this design. It does look very neat and the idea of hiding the fan is kind of cool, too.
Would lapping the cooler a little to flatten better help with the pressure map or is it flexing that much?
It's like Dyson technology, imagine if Dyson make cpu coolers
Meanwhile the wolf ran🥛🍼🍯🍮🍭🍬🍫
by her grandmother, and there 😏🤩😘😅
Aside from lapping and mounting improvements, i wonder if adding a conventional fan to the top of the unit, and then blocking off the bottom with a "cone" to direct airflow out the fins could help. The Wraith fan wouldn't look out of place sitting on top of that.
Then you run into a height issue. You'd have to make the heatsink smaller. Taking the LED thing away from the top removes the whole unique look. Looks like your passively cooling with just the heatsink but has a fan in the middle, thats the beauty of it imo.
That backplate is almost completely identical to Cooler Master’s backplate they ship on a lot of their coolers.
I’m very impressed with Steve’s pronunciation of Aigo.
It’s like he’s Chinese now. It’s spot on!
CRINGE!
I'm annoyed that the pinyin should be Guo but they went with Go ☠️
@@thorc4167 lol stay mad
@@Fyre0 I think they were trying to make it easy for English speakers to say.
@@GamersNexus **cries in elitist purist**
This is started to become my comfort channel whenever I'm feeling down or bored I can watch Steve review something with his team and just feel a little better. Regardless if it was a favorable or not so favorable review on a particular product.
I watch GN at school to make it look like I'm doing something
That's an honor, Crydon!
"We'll soon add a $30 tower to testing as well, so check back for that in the next one."
*Vetroo v5 enters the chat*
This... does put a smile on my face..
16$ snowman T6 :D
Ayyyyyyyyyyy i appreciate y’all spending the money on our behalf lol awesome to know y’all actually pay attention to random tweets. I appreciate listening to my suggestion
Would be cool to see if lapping a cheap cooler like this actually makes a difference on lower TDP CPUs.
Should rename this cooler Planking, it can't stop edge grabbing.
I’d love to see this cooler lapped
How much does lapping equipment cost though? Unless you already had it lying around I doubt people that built low-mid range pcs are wanting to go through that kinda effort
That said, Im exactly that kinda person with an R5 2600 that I would totally do that to if it showed a reasonable drop in temps 🤷♂️🤷♂️
Maybe even liquid metal if I'm feeling spicy
@@Rubentus- oh! I thought it took some sort of speciality equipment
Hell I might give that a go next time I do a deep clean whenever I get my new cooler
Yeah I was thinking the same. It looks like it has potential, and its cheap and cheerful
I kinda like that shape. Remind me of the old zalman coolers
Definitely has that look!
@@GamersNexus hey bro I want to buy a thermal paste for my laptop which is equipped with r5 4600h and a 1650 which paste should I go with which will give good thermals for 8-10 months without drying or pump out ,thermal grizzly kryonaut, artic mx 4 ,or noctua nt nh1
@@aringiri1946 thermal grizzly kryonaut.
@@swizzler8053 bro I heard that it
dries in high temp and only last in 2 months only
Thermaltake SpinQ is where the idea came from.
Speaking of cylinder shaped coolers, over 20 years ago I had one of the old Termalright Orb coolers and they were loud as hell, as loud as a jet plane taking off or a blowimatron.
I had one too! It had 2 fans, one at the top and bottom of the thing and indeed sounded like a wood chipper
I think it looks neat. Maybe not a great cooler, but it works and $30 isn’t a ton of money. I’d love to see more reviews of inexpensive but aesthetically pleasing parts.
One day i might try and build a budget gaming rig just with "obscure" parts like this cooler from A-Z . Then again i just finished my first serious (budget) build, so that might take some time,lol.
With a pressure map that bad I'd be curious to see how much of an uplift in performance lapping would make
Lapping and using a different backing plate, assuming that can be done fairly simply.
On my corsair a 500 it took 5 degrees celcius off.
Logan exactly my thoughts, i hope Steve and his team try to do some lapping on this guy!
Exactly this. It would be a neat project video.
You forgot to mention a very important feature: It doesn't explode.
This could be interesting if someone made a custom case, where this cooler would poke through a hole in the side panel, which would be at a level of the bottom cooler fin. This way you'd have this cooler getting fresh air from outside the case and blowing it then over VRM, RAM etc. also mitigaing the issue with hot air recirculation that it is undoubtably facing. This, on a CPU with integrated GPU, on an ITX MB and some tiny PSU would make a very small, unique-looking PC for light workloads...
DIY those plastic LED Top & you will make Jet fans lol
Will the new office have space for a permanent Schlieren Imaging setup?
Would have been fun to see the airflow of this cooler, but I understand it's pretty disruptive to do in your current office.
So slap this on a Dell or CyberPower and it's an immediate improvement. That's an award-deserving category we should aknowledge.
If you're a F1 fan like me and the Aigo logo looks familiar, they were a smaller sponsor of McLaren from 2007-2011.
thank you, I was desperately trying to remember where I knew the name from
@@paulsnoop Hah yeah had the same ting... was it toyota? no that's Aygo.. but I know this logo from somewhere... hmmz. Doh! Yep, McLaren sponsor!
O my god, this review put me on a nostalgia trip for a cooler I had in the EARLY 00s. I knew it was cylindrical and it was ThermalTake. I went down a rabbithole of old Anandtech reviews for coolers and finally stumbled onto it. May I introduce the Thermaltake Dragon Orb 3 (I was gonna link it, but RUclips). It had a 7000RPM and it was the loudest cooler I've had... ever. But I loved it for the extra 300MHz I probably got out of Celeron at the time.
"We'll soon be testing another $30 cooler."
*Hyper 212 nervous sweating*
By the time any budget cooler comes close to the beast the hyper 212 is, CM will offer us something even better.
I initially read the title as "Cylindrical Ahegao Shadow Max". That would be an interesting addition to the Yeston waifu PC build.
Yabe
Ehy, let me dream ok?
So we're at the point of lewding Yeston waifu PCs?
IS NOTHING SACRED?! (eh, probably)
"No, onii-chan! I exhaust from there!"
can't you change the face plate to ahegao face? lul
Please record some Schlieren imaging the next time you setup the construction. Curious to see how exactly it draws air.
As a viewer from Brazil I would like to point out a reason for you guys to explore what there is on Aliexpress. Almost everything that is bought from China isn't taxed on importation, but, if I import it from another place I will, most likely, get taxed. It's really good to find well done reviews on the chinese stuff because most of the reviews you can find on chinese branded stuff are done by people that don't know how to compare, or, don't have the stuff to compare with.
So I live in Turkey and recently bought a OEM( I chose the parts and a company assembled it) pc. it's in like a 3 front 1 back RGB fan "Darkflash Skywalker" case and tbh it doesn't have the best airflow and the psu bay seems kinda small. Id like to see a review of aforementioned case as well. Great job as always.
As a Chinese human being that often browses Taobao for an hour a time at least once a week, I can tell you I have bumped into this cooler at least 50 times. And not once have I considered buying it.
Aigo (爱国, literal translation: "Love Country") is one of the biggest PC component manufacturers / brands in China, specializing mostly in cases, coolers (mostly AIOs), and case fans, with their main competitors being companies such as Segotep, Golden Field, etc.
Aigo is actually, contrary to popular belief, a pretty popular brand in China. The most obvious example of this is the products co-branded as Aigo products (which is mostly power supplies called "Aigo version").
Edit: pronounced "Haiguow"
I almost bought one, just to see how it would look in a pc. But then Amazon messed up on something and gave me $150 credit for their mistake and I just went and bought a Lian Li 240mm aio.
Oh yeah, Aigo... We have those everywhere here, they're known for their Darkflash branding for coolers/cases/fans if I'm not mistaken. Definitely okay for the price but far from premium, very interesting though (their DLM cases are pretty nice and I'll never forget that weird darkflash talon or something named cooler which looks like a large ninja shuriken as like the fan shroud)
I have those darkflash fans, got like 5 argb fans and 4 argb strips with mobo sync for like 40usd
That Noctua is a pretty good little cooler. While waiting for my Corsair Capellix 280mm AIO I used a NH-U12S Black with my 5800X build, and I was very impressed with the low CPU temps in the Fractal Meshify 2 Compact case (Kryonaut). Plus the extra space in the front of the compact case for the 2 Fractal fans to blow on the Sapphire Nitro+ 6900XT also kept that cool. Once I installed my Corsair AIO the fans and radiator almost touched my 6900XT and blocked airflow, so my 6900XT temps in Time Spy jumped from 71 degrees to 78 degrees average! I couldn't return the AIO (bought slightly used from my son who did a EK custom loop for 5950X/RTX 3090), so I ended returning the compact case for the full size Meshify 2 case. But, if I hadn't committed to the AIO I may have kept using the NH-U12S and the compact case. It was a really good bang for the buck for a 5800X.
I would be interested in seeing a review of a couple of their other, more standard coolers, just to see if some of these issues(namely that hilariously awful mounting pressure) are universal to all their products.
By the way, Aigo is a brand with a long history. In the era when everyone still was making MP3 players, its rivals were Meizu and OPPO.
OPPO has become a global enterprise.But Aigo still make ……
Oppo makes iPod copies tho
I guess it’s gonna be better than cyberpower.
I would love to see a follow up on this if they find out that lapping the surface helps with mounting pressure.
The backplate for the Aigo looks almost exactly like the one that comes with the Cooler Master Hyper 212 RGB Black Edition, which is also plastic and comes with the same plastic clips. The only difference that I can see is those yellow clips in the Aigo are black for the Cooler Master edition.
Seems like it would be fun to flatten the plate to see if it helps it a lot
Can I just say that this is one of the first coolers I have genuinely wanted to get just for the novelty/use in a novelty system?
I love that you guys are doing reviews of the lesser known brands of coolers. Can find cooler master, noctua and scythe reviews anywhere.
Would’ve been cool to see what effect using the stock AMD back plate would be.
Results would not be much different. GN does not know this, but thermal contact is not much affected by pressure. Pressure (essentially) is just repulsing force between atoms(molecules) of two materials. What you need is uniformity, but even that could be fixed with thermal paste. Thermal paste these days is almost as good conductor as metal. Overall, this is a basic cooler and will do its job. Only thing that is questionable is longevity of the fan.
@@aleksazunjic9672 Not true. The uneven mounting pressure causes the paste to squeeze out and equalize pressure, crating an uneven contact that is not thermally efficient. It's not a case of just slapping it on and making sure it touches....
@@Notpoop906 You are too obsessed with "equalizing pressure" . Cooling has nothing to do with pressure. It is simply improved when contact area between the tin on CPU housing and cooler itself is increased. Thermal paste serves to fill in gaps in that contact area, since both metal surfaces are not perfect. And that is basically it. Heat is conducted to the cooler, and cooler then dissipates it. As a rule of thumb, larger cooler means better dissipation and better cooling.
Since it was brought up in this video, it might be interesting to test a new old-stock Zalman.
Might require a lot of adapters to fit a modern socket though.
I think that for the aesthetics it's an interesting cooler. It's nice to see different ideas, and I'm sure it's worth it to some people.
I know I keep banging on about it, but I'm really hoping to see the Arctic 34 eSports Duo. From my experience it's worth testing, and I'm certain it'll be good watching.
Yes, I love my 33 (same cooler, 5mm shorter to fit in my case lol)
They ight be lengthy but I like your in depth reviews cause you always give a lot of quatifiable details (like the heatpipe dimension here) that ultimately helps you compare everything.
Great work Steve, as always
You guys should definitely review the 212. I know it’s basically the Skyrim of CPU coolers, but it sets a good baseline for future tests. The 212 also has had its mounting hardware changed when the black version was released and I think it’d also be interesting to see how that compares. Think it would also be interesting to see how coolers from 10 years ago hold up in general (although I assume that’s probably harder to do with modern amd hardware. I think 9th gen intel will work with most still though), like the Zalmans or something dumb like the Cooler Master v8 or something Joanne or Paul did an overview for on Newegg’s channel 10 years ago.
Zalman Coolers aka Knuckle Cutters.
running 24/7 since 2004 in a server of mine, still cutting strong
I still have one in my Phenom II X4 955 HTPC and Steam in home streaming machine. The only issue is the lack of PWM support on the fan, so I just connect it to the 5v on the molex and leave it there. I bought this cooler with my first salary.
It is eerie similar to Aerocool Mirage 5.
Strange way of saying "identical".
@@FEARmeify strange way of understanding "identical", bc it's clearly not
I'm wondering why they went with a downdraft fan, something like a squirrel cage fan drawing up from the bottom and out through the radiator might work better.
yeah, I too was thinking the radiators could be put to better use
Really enjoyed this review. It's great to see a review something thats a bit different cos if i had spotted that on Ali-Express it would have stoked my interest !
Could you please review an ice giant prosiphon? I know L1 looked at it, but this data would be nice to see.
Company: "cheap cooler with horrible stat"
Gamers Nexus: "$$$"
Here in the Philippines, darkFlash products actually perform/look very well for their price ranges, which don't include shipping and other fees that you might pay to get them in the US. They have a great MATX case that I use a lot called the DLM21 Mesh (mesh front to get that GN seal of approval), as well as an ITX case called the DLH21 that I've used (an NZXT H1 clone but with all mesh side panels and without the firestarter kit). If we're talking cooling then their C6 fans (C6MS for the 3-in-1 package and C6S for the single package) are cheap 120mm ARGB fans that I use a lot, and their Shadow Pro cooler is a more traditional CPU cooler that performs slightly above average for its price (though I will have to look into the mounting pressure since the mounting hardware is identical 😅).
Overall, they offer affordable products that look great while performing above average for cheap. Hopefully this sheds some light on their ideal target market!
Some idea for card-board engineering:
Close the part above the coldplate off, then have a fan sitting on top blowing into the finstack. Now you just dremel a hole into your side panel for an outside-air feed into the CPU fan.
I'm kinda curious how good Steve's Chinese really is XD
with their line of work i wouldn't be too shock if they learn a bit of it
In one of the revisions of the hyper 212 evo, they added that same little heatsink on top of the cold plate, I'm actually curious how much it contributes.
Scythe used to do it aswell, at least on my gen1 Ninja, and newer Mugen. I suppose it helps low airflow usecases?
I had that one, mounted it wrong and burned my pentium 4
This is probably a 8/10 review from most other tech-tubers based on the fact that steve didn't just exasperatingly laugh it off the stage
I also think that, considering it's from ali express, it's probably a 11/10 in regards to "it actually works, fits (somewhat), and didn't explode" like all their other stuff
oh, and I think steve should include "at least it's not gigabyte" in his review scale/awards, to go along with the "it's better than dell" and "tech support better than nzxt"
I know you guys spend a lot of time doing cooler reviews, and a lot of them will have predictable results, but this is the type of content I absolutely love. Keep it coming, I will watch every video from start to finish. An idea may be something like shootouts based on price point, design, and then a round of of bizarre coolers?
It might not be practical, but it’s different, and wacky to look at….
Also, the V5 edition could be slightly misleading, as a Hardware company in the UK didn’t have an Issue 1-37 for a catalogue, makes it look more established to new customers, rather they had started with 38.
5 heat pipes in a "V" = V5, like an engine9(edit: sorta, as pointed out that normally equals v10).
V5 is also a shorter way to say 威武 (imposing, formidable). Was commonly used in a around 2010
@@everestcomputer wouldn't that be V10
@@myownsite lol oops, yeah youre right.
They probably have a reason why they call it "V5", they have several (at least 2 more) other designs in the same “碟影” series. Like someone else pointed out the 5 likely referring to the number of heat pipes, or "V5" in Chinese sounded like “威武”.
I would have loved to see you paying some intern we might not know of a couple of dollars *to lap it and then test again* - that would have turned a _mildy_ interesting video into a _really_ interesting video (and maybe doubled the view count).
Lap it and find a better backplate, it kind of looks like an old hyper 212 backplate could be made to fit
@@dstns Results would not be much different. GN does not know this, but thermal contact is not much affected by pressure. Pressure (essentially) is just repulsing force between atoms(molecules) of two materials. What you need is uniformity, but even that could be fixed with thermal paste. Thermal paste these days is almost as good conductor as metal. Overall, this is a basic cooler and will do its job. Only thing that is questionable is longevity of the fan
I remember seeing this on Newegg a few months ago and I was like “we need to get Steve to review this”
I love you guys. Best testing methodology on RUclips by a long shot
just out of curiosity: I would like to see how much better this cooler would perform after you sand the baseplate manually. To improve the contact
It's a HDT (heatpipe direct touch) design, you can't sand much before puncturing the heatpipe.
@@awdrifter3394 u sure? Not even a couple of mm?
@@CapComa maybe 1mm, but the heatpipe walls are definitely thinner than a few mm.
@@awdrifter3394 Thanks. Didn't know
Aigo sure seems to be the same China OEM as UpHere, AsiaHorse, DarkFlash. Pretty good quality for money when it comes to fan kits. Don't seem to be super great when it comes to AIO's and PC coolers. Something like a Snowman will probably treat you better.
I mean, we did say in the conclusion that Aigo and DarkFlash are related, so yes, they should seem the same.
@@GamersNexus When I ordered a Darkflash item on Aliexpress the notification said that I bought from the Aigo store. I believe they are actually the same company just that the name DarkFlash would suit the western market better.
Or something along those lines at least.
@@GamersNexus I mean yes you did and I added several other companies as well. I get you like to be smarmy and all but additional information isn't the same information.
@@exturkconner Sorry you feel that way. It's just weird to see someone say the same thing we said already. Trying to be open here, the difference is your tone and how you said it: "Aigo sure seems to be the same as DarkFlash" will, to most people passing by who don't watch the video or conclusion (tons of people skim comments without watching), make it look like we didn't say that. That's why it matters. If someone wants to add information, cool, but presenting old information alongside it makes it look to a passerby as if it is information that the content creator left out (we didn't). That's why we reply this way to comments like this.
@@GamersNexus But it wasn't the same thing. You didn't mention Uphere and Asiahorse. I added information to what you said. Yet you felt the need to act as if I didn't. And still are. I don't really get why you feel the need to be dismissive of that but clearly you do. I suppose I should be the one apologizing. Here I thought you'd appreciate the value of something being added to your thoughts on a subject. I was clearly mistaken. I won't make the same mistake again.
I wonder if there could be two improvements made to the Aigo:
1, if the air is all blowing down onto the top of the coldplate, that must bean that the "intake" for the fan is being sucked in through the heatsink fins. I wonder if reversing the rotation of the fan, to pull air up from the coldplate and push it out through the fins, might possibly increase cooling efficiency in some small amount.
2, perhaps lapping the contact side of the heatpipes could improve the mount and do a better job of drawing heat off of the die portion of the CPU's IHS.
i recognize the aigo logo from the mclaren F1 car, you'd think that a company that can sponsor an F1 team would be somewhat high end
hey Steve, google Cooler Master Sphere. Its basically the same design, just different shape. (i have one of those, the plain copper version, on a prescott P4, and it does the job pretty well).
Wow, that’s an ugly beast IMHO. It somewhat reminds me of a 90’s washing machine liquid dosing ball.
I disagree, it looks a lot more sophisticated and capable ... reminds me of two Zalman flowers put on top of each other :> One of the latter is still running 24/7 in one of my servers since 2004 without any degradation on the bearing, very impressive.
aigo is a relatively old company, I grow up with the brand when I was in primary school. Its main business line is not cooler, and I do not know what they are producing at the moment. It is pretty interesting to see GN reviews its subline product.
interesting indeed
also, *grew
I was SO looking for a review of this strange cooler on youtube since I saw it on AliExpress some time ago. THANK YOU!
Just as a curious fact, Steve likened this to a Zalman cooler while in fact it is much closer to Gigabyte's "3D Cooler" series from a similar era. They were some of the first solutions that actually used heat-pipes to cool consumer CPUs and the main difference was they used the squirrel-cage blower fan. They were also obnoxiously loud and flashy, being perfect representatives of Gigabyte as a brand.
This is one of the weirdest coolers I've seen in a while, the fan inside almost looks like a impeller.
It _is_ an impeller, just like the agitator in a top loader, which it reminded me of.
I would like to have seen if we had a difference with the AMD stock backplate if it could be made to work but other that that 5 star job on the review
I was wondering the same thing. I'd love to see them revisit this cooler using the stock AMD backplate. From the look of the fan blades, it appears as though they designed them incorrectly. The blades are designed to funnel air downwards. If the fans were straightened out so that they push air outwards, it would probably perform much better. Correct the mounting issue and it may become a recommendable cooler.
About the name of the brand and product -
their original brand name in Chinese is "爱国者“ which is pronounced something close to "ai-guo-tse" and apparently it is not too friendly to English speaker. So some years ago they rebranded and give it a name "Aigo" which is quite the transliterate of "爱国", meaning "being patriot".
And the product name - "碟影" is probably named so it sounds the same as “谍影” which means silhouette or shadow of spy (or spying). Just to make it sound cool apparently. And the "V5" part - I seriously doubt about it is the revision because I cannot find its V4 or V3. On the other hand, "V5" is a frequently used transliterate for “威武” meaning "mighty" in English. It is a somewhat expired meme to use on Internet or in pop culture but Aigo is also a quite old brand so I suspect that's why the name.
Yeah, just some random useless Chinese culture knowledge.
The reason for the big plastic cap is to stop airflow coming in the top and bypassing the fin stack, since the fan is blowing the air downwards. ie: the air being blown downwards has to come from somewhere, and capping the top forces the air to be sucked in through the fin stacks.
You know what they say.. A dissapointed Steve a day keeps the boredom away...
Can't say I'm really disappointed in this one, though. It did as expected.
@@GamersNexus Yep, I spoke too early.
exited to see how this thing performs, bought their aio not too long ago and it's doing a really good job so far
You know what, it may not have top line performance, but props for trying something unique. We need more companies experimenting out there.
Coolers like these were popular in Pentium 4-era Dell SFF computers. They were called "squirrel cage" coolers.
I actually bought one of these last year just because I saw it on AliExpress and thought "I gotta try that". Had the same general impression as this video: Not a GOOD cooler but, if you like the look, you can use it in a lower power build without hurting yourself. I was getting 78C in Prime95 on an old Xeon x3450 (95W) with it. Just something to make the case interior look a little more interesting. Was a blast to see it reviewed now though.
Funny that when Steve mentioned the fan as if we couldn't see it but he held it at just the right angle for us to see it XD
Don't have any specific ones to suggest, but definitely would love more reviews of interesting and unique products.
The mention of the $30 cooler makes me think you are going to review the Veetro V5 cooler!! I was going to ask you guys to review it. Jay did it already and made the darn thing hard to find on Amazon.
I think it is doing well on my R5 3600. Keeps my Temps in the 50's during gaming. With my case fans on high, in a LanCool II Mesh performance.
This would be great for an engine block themed build. It looks like a cylinder! ....Well, it literally is a cylinder. But yeah!
6:55 Nice camera work!
Great videos. I love taking obscure products and running them through the testing mill.
It looks so cool.
They should fix that contact issue! I'd be curious to see how it would perform if it properly contacted more than half a CPU.
And they should try to make a giant one.
Calling the wraith spire an „AMD stockcooler“ is pretty far fetched at this point. It is barely included in anything, „ THE AMD stockcooler“ included in nearly everything is the abysmal wraith stealth cooler. which is nearly as bad as the intel stockcooler, utterly garbage.
On an another note, great video. Pleas test more of Brand Strange coolers.
Hi Gamers Nexus Team,
Should have tested performance with out cap. Testing pure functionality and efficiency. Cheers,
Bill
That is even an older design. Thermaltake and some other had the orb cooler in early 2000's which were mounted like that and the fan was inside of the fins. Some models even had a stacked fans.
This reminds me on Thermaltake's Dragon Orb (Socket A) from back in the day. It was super noisy but looked and cooled well. I like the aesthetics of the Aigo, but the below stock thermal performance is kind of a deal breaker
I've often heard about snowman coolers from ali that are used by those who buy 6-12c Xeon CPUs for super budget builds. They are super cheap (cheaper than that Aigo one) but they are known for having uneven base so maybe you can kill two birds with 1(almost) stone - buy few of those (to chose similarly performing ones) and check how much lapping helps. I've done lapping on several CPU coolers already (with just sandpaper on my desk) including AMD Prism and PCCooler 5 heatpipe tower and I think it would be interesting to see the degree of change it brings. Can also buy just 1 and just test it before and after lapping, but you won't be able to redo testing that way.
Strange, youtube deleted my previous comment while I was editing it, good thing I had it copied. Maybe youtube doesn't like full ali name? There were no links.
It is a rather unique design, however the best usage for it is systems where the motherboard is vertically aligned, since as you stated the fan pulls air in through the fin stack and pushes it towards the CPU. That means in systems where you have the mobo in a horizontal configuration, it will blow hot air down towards the CPU, which then rises back up into the cooler. If the fan could be set to pull air in from the bottom and push it out through the fin stack, that could possibly improve cooling performance, and possibly allow it to be used in both horizontal and vertical configurations with fewer heat issues.
This little strange cooler is also known as "Noua Alaska" and "Aerocool Mirage5", with minor changes to the top (Aerocool one has an infinity mirror effect). I bought it at €20, for a little experiment: I thought that equipping it with a better fan would improve its performance, especially after seeing from a russian review that its strange fan basically draws air from the top half/third and blows it down from the bottom. So, I mounted (jury-rigged) an old Noctua NF-P12 on it after removing the top and I'm disappointed to say that temperatures stayed basically the same. My theory is that the small fan may have a lesser flow but a better static pressure, which is required to push air through the rather tightly-packed fins of this cooler. Looks like it could've been better, with a little more design behind it. Just wanted to share my experience.
Love these types of videos. Just the weird and wonderful things people have thought up and actually brought to market that makes you think.....how did someone get far enough into this product to have it mass produced ....
Its not a cooler but a Fan i've always been interested in are the Jonsbo FR-701 fans, purely because they're the only fan ive seen recently that offers a "reverse blade" option. Be great for cases like the TT Core P3/P5/Etc that have a fan filter built into the rear but to actually use it means you have to stare at the ugly fan motor frame/back side of the fan. A reverse rotation fan would fix that but.....how does it actually perform....and how does the static pressure hold up (as usual use case in a Core P case, or even front location of most cases)