AeroCool Intros the Mirage 5: Looks Like an AIO Block, But it's Not

[btarunr]

At first glance, the new AeroCool Mirage 5 looks like an overgrown AIO CLC CPU block, with its puck shape, glass top, and an infinite-reflection RGB ornament, but it's not. It's a cylindrical, tower-type CPU air cooler. The CPU base features a tiny bit of aluminium finnage. From here, five 6 mm-thick copper heat pipes make direct contact with the CPU, conveying heat to a stack of ring-shaped anodized aluminium fins. The fin-stack is ventilated by a high-RPM 60 mm lateral flow fan with a somewhat cylindrical impeller, located underneath the top-plate.

This fan spins between 1,200 to 3,000 RPM, pushing between 39.7 to 74.3 CFM of air-flow, with 0.91 to 2.13 mm H₂O static pressure. AeroCool claims the noise output ranges between 18 to 30 dBA for this fan, since this isn't just another 60 mm fan, but a cylindrical impeller that happens to have a low diameter when viewed from the top. The fan features a hydraulic bearing, and is rated for 60,000 hours MTBF. The cooler measures 100 mm x 100 mm x 145 mm (WxDxH). AeroCool claims that the Mirage 5 can handle thermal loads of up to 150 W TDP. Among the CPU socket types supported are LGA2066, LGA1200, LGA115x, and AM4. The company didn't reveal pricing or availability.



A video presentation by AeroCool follows.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Dammeron]

Hmmm.... Thermaltake SpinQ?

And no, it wasn't good...

 

[PLAfiller]

I mean it's AeroCool, they always come up with something clunky Not necessarily bad, though. Got the looks going for it, I'd be interested in the actual temps and noise levels. Actually I am really curious about them.

 

[biffzinker]

Hmmm.... Thermaltake SpinQ?

And no, it wasn't good...

Not enough heat pipes perhaps was the problem?

 

[bob3002]

The fancy infinity mirror top plate apparently blocks air flow from the top, so I guess the fan must draw air from the bottom and force it out the sides? That seems... suboptimal at best.

Would love to see a performance comparison after release, if only out of a sense of morbid curiousity.

 

[ebivan]

Mmmmhh, I love a tower cooler with a proprietary fan. After two or three years, the bearings are busted and it all becomes fancy RGB trash.

I stick with my 10 year old Macho, retrofitted with an AM4 bracket and a Nocua fan. I really hope that whatever comes after AM4 will be compatible and it will last me another 10 years...

 

[ExcuseMeWtf]

The fin-stack is ventilated by a high-RPM 60 RPM lateral flow fan with a somewhat cylindrical impeller, located underneath the top-plate.

I think they meant 60 mm?

Interesting design. If it performed well and sold in non-RGB version, might consider.

 

[watzupken]

I feel with this sorts of design, the limitation is with the fan/ airflow. At low RPM, there may be little airflow. And at high RPM, it is going to be very loud.

 

[Crackong]

Where is the air came from ?
The 4th dimension again ?

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Hmmm.... Thermaltake SpinQ?

And no, it wasn't good...

Spire Swirl

 

[Chrispy_]

Yep you guys have already linked a few of the failures I remember from the "interesting" days of early CPU coolers.

All previous attemps to successfully commercialise this desing have failed because it's an objectively worse way to do thinkgs; Louder, hotter, more expensive to make, and no synergy with the default ATX case airflow.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

I think blocking off the top of the cooler with the Aerocool logo is also probably going to make it cool worse by 10-20%.

 

[ryun]

The fancy infinity mirror top plate apparently blocks air flow from the top, so I guess the fan must draw air from the bottom and force it out the sides? That seems... suboptimal at best.

Would love to see a performance comparison after release, if only out of a sense of morbid curiousity.

The cap at the top makes sense to me. If it does indeed draw air from the bottom then allowing that air to escape right out the top probably won't do anything for cooling; forcing it out the sides keeps air moving across the fins and transferring that heated air away from the cooler.

But yeah I too would like to see a performance review. As others have posted, this design has been attempted before so I'm not holding my breath on great results. More traditional coolers also allow fans to be replaced easily when they fail -- so it's probably not something I'd get regardless -- but I'm still curious as well.

 

[Chrispy_]

If it does indeed draw air from the bottom; forcing it out the sides keeps air moving across the fins and transferring that heated air away from the cooler.

But yeah I too would like to see a performance review. As others have posted, this design has been attempted before so I'm not holding my breath on great results.

It's the only way that design can work. It sucks all the hot air off the VRMs around the socket, then tries to cool the fins with it, and then 50% of the air it exhausts is fighting the direction of the case airflow going from the front to the back/top.

On an open test bench it's a bad design. In a case with decent airflow it's a pretty serious mistake. They'll compensate by running the fan faster, which just means it'll be either loud or perform poorly as a cooler. The good news is that you don't need to wait for the review because the design is unchanged from previous attempts and the reviews on those were bad for the obvious reasons.

 

[InVasMani]

They should use a decent length cross flow cpu fan with a design like this. A few more evenly spaced heat pipes wouldn't hurt either even if they weren't in direct touch heat pipes. It looks like they could've squeezed in another 4 pipes that they could've adhered to the top of that mount bracket. That and/or cut it into two semicircles with with one of those cross flow fans that does a push/pull drawing cool air from below and pushing it out at the top. That would be really efficient. It would be orientated to blow the air across VRM's alternatively and drawing some of the air and heat away from the memory which might be more ideal for the VRM cooling, but less efficient as a whole for the case and CPU temperatures.

I do think it would be a solid design though. It also really doesn't need to be circular designed it could just as easily be square with with a hollowed out center and a inlet/outlet for the cross flow fan to push/pull the airflow and probably more efficient because you could squeeze in another heat pipe in each corner trivially enough plus all the extra surface area for the aluminum fins by doing it in that manner. It's a nice concept though.

A DIY type could probably modified this cooler with a cross flow fan in the manner I suggest though you'd probably like take a decent diameter plastic cup or something and cut it in half and adhere it on two of the sides. You'd defiantly have to cut 1 side or both sides fin stack a bit though with like a cutting disc and use those openings to direct the airflow bottom to top or left to right. Perhaps a easier solution though is just put heating duct vent tube all the around it adhere it to the top case fan that pulls all that heat toward it luckily heat rises anyway making it easier to expel it like a chimney stack.

 

[bob3002]

The cap at the top makes sense to me. If it does indeed draw air from the bottom then allowing that air to escape right out the top probably won't do anything for cooling; forcing it out the sides keeps air moving across the fins and transferring that heated air away from the cooler.

But yeah I too would like to see a performance review. As others have posted, this design has been attempted before so I'm not holding my breath on great results. More traditional coolers also allow fans to be replaced easily when they fail -- so it's probably not something I'd get regardless -- but I'm still curious as well.

At least those other designs were generally open on both top and bottom, so air could be drawn in on both sides and be forced through the fins. This design cuts off the top side, for a fancy decorative RGB plate. Unless there's some secret sauce I'm not seeing, the performance is going to be worse than the previous ones unless they crank the speeds way up.

Basically I'm wondering how this compares to Wraith Spire/Prism bundled coolers. I assume it should have no problem beating an Intel stock cooler.

 

[Chrispy_]

They should use a decent length cross flow cpu fan with a design like this. A few more evenly spaced heat pipes wouldn't hurt either even if they weren't in direct touch heat pipes. It looks like they could've squeezed in another 4 pipes that they could've adhered to the top of that mount bracket. That and/or cut it into two semicircles with with one of those cross flow fans that does a push/pull drawing cool air from below and pushing it out at the top. That would be really efficient. It would be orientated to blow the air across VRM's alternatively and drawing some of the air and heat away from the memory which might be more ideal for the VRM cooling, but less efficient as a whole for the case and CPU temperatures. I do think it would be a solid design though. It also really doesn't need to be circular designed it could just as easily be square with with a hollowed out center and a inlet/outlet for the cross flow fan to push/pull the airflow and probably more efficient because you could squeeze in another heat pipe in each corner trivially enough plus all the extra surface area for the aluminum fins by doing it in that manner. It's a nice concept though.
View attachment 168775

I love my cross-flow tower fan at home because it sits on the indoor window sill and blows in fresh air from the ajar window without obscuring the view, but there's no denying that they make more noise and shift less air than axial fans.

 

[InVasMani]

I love my cross-flow tower fan at home because it sits on the indoor window sill and blows in fresh air from the ajar window without obscuring the view, but there's no denying that they make more noise and shift less air than axial fans.

They don't need to actually push a lot of airflow though in a design like this a few inches outward should be good. How loud they sound really depends on design variables. I will say that the cross-flow fan designs have little to no innovations done with them for PC cooling as a whole. I feel like a company Noctua designing some fans of that type could shake things up a lot to improve the overall sound and efficiency. Fair criticism though they can loud as hell and same with the other style blower fans, but that said they can also be quiet at low fan speeds. They aren't great at high airflow, but imagine pretty good at static pressure. Honestly I think even that depends on the design it's just a different orientated fan really.

Put square ducting around the outside of this with a cross flow fan with a 140mm fan to pull/push the heat and flexible ducting up to the top case fan that could also help pull/push all the heat out and this would probably work great and be quiet at the same time.

 

[lexluthermiester]

This thing looks good! I like it! Wish it had brackets for 1366...

Hmmm.... Thermaltake SpinQ?

And no, it wasn't good...

Clearly you never used one. They were very good at cooling. A little noisy when the blower ramped up, but cooled well.

Not enough heat pipes perhaps was the problem?

It worked fine.

 

[claes]

This thing looks good! I like it! Wish it had brackets for 1366...


Clearly you never used one. They were very good at cooling. A little noisy when the blower ramped up, but cooled well.


It worked fine.

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