Alpenfohn Matterhorn PURE Review

Today we are taking a look at the Alpenföhn Matterhorn PURE CPU cooler, a competitively priced mid range cooler for those who seek high performance at low cost. In enthusiast circles Alpenföhn have already earned a reputation for solid build quality and striking aesthetics. There are many CPU coolers on the market today, and its increasingly difficult to distinguish the men from the boys in terms of price vs performance. Many follow a traditional design of a single tower with a solid base (Copper and Nickel seem to be a popular choice) and dense fin array, with anywhere between 2 and 8 copper heat pipes connecting to it all together. Alpenföhn have a great selection of coolers on the market which vary from the lowest level cooler, the 'Panorama' to the big daddy of their selection, the 'K2'. Each cooler varies in looks and performance, however the over engineered appearance is consistent throughout, along with a standard 120mm fan, which is also designed by Alpenföhn inhouse. The official specs can be seen below: Heat sink Spec: Size: 138 x 123 x 158mm. Weight: 657gr. Fan Specification: Size: 120 x 120 x 25mm. Rated Voltage: 12 VDC. Speed: 500 - 1500 RPM. Airflow: 108 m³/h. Bearing: HD-Bearing. Auto Restart: Yes. Socket compatibility: Intel: LGA2011/1366/1155/1156/775/. AMD: AM3/AM3+/AM2/AM2+/FM1. Fin Design: The special trapezoid shaped fins that are placed in a 180° rhythm creating two essential advantages: Narrow Fin pitch in the center of the heatsink - this feature increases the thermal surface and ensures a higher heat dissipation. Wide fin pitch at air inlet area - by having a wide fin pitch at the air inlet area the Alpenföhn „Matterhorn can be run with very low fan speed as the airflow faces less resistance. Despite that the "Matterhorn" cooler has closed sides. This helps guiding the air through the narrow fin area and offers better mechanical stability. Heatpipe/Baseplate: The six U-shape Heatpipes have a large contact area to the full copper baseplate to optimize the heat-transfer from the CPU. By precision CNC machining the surface of the base plate is extremely flat. 120mm WB-Pure Fan: The award-winning WB-technology maximize cooling and minimize noise due to an optimized fan blade design. In combination of 4 de-vibration rubber elements and HD bearing the new WingBoost Pure fan is nearly inaudible. The new "plus-function" gives you the possibility to control a further PWM fan with one PWM connector of the Motherboard. The cooler is shipped in a modest & simply designed box, although it doesn’t feature any specifications on the front or rear. The product itself is well highlighted on the front of the box. The sides of the case feature all the specifications one would expect to see on a modern CPU cooler, in addition to a showcase of some features. Inside we are welcomed with a small box containing the fan which features a unique cable splitter dubbed the "plus-function". This gives the option to control an additional PWM fan with one PWM header on the motherboard. The cooler is large but very light, you will instantly be taken back by how well engineered it looks compared to the light weight. Finally, the last of the contents that are kept in a white box revealed which are; the fan mounts, the mounting brackets and various bolts and the installation guide. This guide features both AMD and Intel installation methods. Initially when gazing on all the screws and bolts inside the packaging I thought the installation may have been difficult, but it was actually very straightforward. The whole process is kept easy by the well written guide, which will ensure that even inexperienced users won't have too many problems. First of all the backplate has to be installed with the plastic covered side facing the motherboard and four of the pins pushed through. The brackets are then bolted in after the plastic spacers have been placed into position and then the mount can be bolted into place. Once the mount is securely in position, thermal paste is to be applied to the CPU and the tower placed into position. A small metal bracket is then fed through the top of the block which is then screwed into the 2 holes either side of the mount. The provided fan is then mounted to one side of the tower using the provided fan mounts and then it can be plugged into the appropriate motherboard header. In this review we are going to measure the thermal capabilities of the Matterhorn PURE with the Intel i5 2500K when overclocked to 4.4ghz @ 1.365v. Each run of Prime 95 is left for at least 25 minutes. Hardware: Processor: Intel Core i5 2500k @ 4.4ghz (1.365v). Motherboard: Asus Maximus Extreme IV. Memory: 8GB Mushkin Ridgeback 2133Mhz. OS Drive: 120GB Corsair Force 3 SSD. Storage Drives: 2TB Western Digital Green & 2TB Seagate Barracuda Green. Graphics: Sapphire 2GB 6950. Power Supply: 1200W Cooler Master Silent Pro Gold. Operating System: Windows 7 x64 Ultimate Edition. Comparison Cooler: Antec Kuhler 620. Software: CPUZ. Prime95 (64 bit). HWMonitor. The results give a good indication that the Matterhorn PURE performs at a very high level, especially for the modest asking price. That said, it won't annoy many people who overclock. Today to test this cooler we have set our Digital Sound Level Noise Decibel Meter Style 2 one meter away from our case. The room rates as 25dBa before powering on the system. We then removed the discrete graphics card, and temporarily turned all other case fans off. This leaves us with only the CPU cooler fans and very little noise from the power supply fan. As this can be a little confusing for people, here are various dBa ratings in with real world situations to help describe the various levels. KitGuru noise guide 10dBA - Normal Breathing/Rustling Leaves 20-25dBA – Whisper 30dBA – High Quality Computer fan 40dBA – A Bubbling Brook, or a Refrigerator 50dBA - Normal Conversation 60dBA - Laughter 70dBA - Vacuum Cleaner or Hairdryer 80dBA - City Traffic or a Garbage Disposal 90dBA - Motorcycle or Lawnmower 100dBA - MP3 player at maximum output 110dBA - Orchestra 120dBA - Front row rock concert/Jet Engine 130dBA - Threshold of Pain 140dBA - Military Jet takeoff/Gunshot (close range) 160dBA - Instant Perforation of eardrum The fan on this cooler isn't the quietest model we have tested in the last year. Our meter recorded over 37Dba at full load. The Alpenföhn Matterhorn PURE is a high performance cooler which costs around half the price of the leading, flagship coolers from Thermaltake, Phanteks and Noctua. If you aren't willing to spend more than £30 on a cooler, then the Matterhorn PURE is certainly worth being shortlisted. Overall we are left with positive impressions of the Matterhorn PURE. We certainly have no concerns with Alpenföhns build quality, the product is engineered to a very high standard. They are using quality copper heat pipes and an innovative trapezoid shaped fin array which increases the surface area of the tower. The cooling performance of the Matterhorn PURE proved to be impressive for a cooler of its size, barely being challenged by the overclock of the i5 2500k. Our results indicate that there is plenty of headroom left to deal with hotter running processors, and higher overclock/voltage settings. For £30 it delivers a lot of performance, although we think it would benefit from the addition of an extra fan. Alphenfohn don't supply an extra fan option, or even the fan mount clips which would be needed to get things up and running. Obviously they are working to a strict budget, but it would be great if they released a 'Deluxe' version with extra fan and clips, for £5 more. Overclockers are stocking this cooler right now for £30.98 inc vat. At this price it really is difficult to ignore. Pros Very quiet. Easy to install. Solid engineering. Cons Only 1 fan and 1 set of fan clips provided. Not suitable for non-low profile memory. Kitguru says: A high value for money cooler which performs well.