Installed

EVERCOOL HPK-10025EA falls into the category of compact, low-profile coolers, the ones designed to give you quieter and cooler, but mostly quieter operation compared to the stock cooler. When installed, the HPK-10025EA doesn't look much bigger than the Intel stock HSF. It's slightly taller, but still makes for a low-profile cooler that can fit into slim form-factor cases.


The HPK-10025EA leaves just about enough clearance with the VRM heatsink north of the CPU socket, while leaving plenty of clearance with the heatsink west of it (near the rear panel). Further, the VRM area gets residual air from the heatsink, which is welcome. While the air is warm, it ends up being cooler than the VRM, and hence it contributes positively.


The GIGABYTE X58A-UD7 is a very crowded motherboard, its designers made lavish use of heatsinks to keep key components cool. The HPK-10025EA maintains a safe distance from the northbridge heatsink, particularly its bunch of heat pipes. The detachable Hybrid Silent Pipe northbridge heatsink assembly won't in any way obstruct normal installation.


This is the key area where clearance is king. A badly designed cooler would deprive you of a memory slot, thereby making two other slots on the LGA1366 motherboard useless (if you want to properly populate every memory slot and retain a stable triple-channel configuration). The HPK-10025EA maintains perfect clearance with the memory area, feel free to populate every slot with any of the tall memory modules out there.