CM Sphere is the latest CPU cooler from Cooler Master, using a very unique design based on a radial fan. This cooler is 100% made of copper, using four heat-pipes and according to Cooler Master it also helps to cool down the components around the CPU, such as the motherboard voltage regulator and the chipset.
Air-cooling, by way of a heatsink and attached fan are the standard that most users utilize in their system build and these types of products have flooded the market. When a product has flooded the marketplace the mid-range is usually the sweet spot between price and performance. The good thing is this is the area where the most competition is to be found as well making for an abundance of products to be chosen from. The CoolerMaster CM Sphere is a very cool looking product that reminds one of a shining globe and is eye catching as well for custom modified systems. They offer two different flavors of the CM Sphere, one being shiny copper and the other being jet black so depending on your taste you can choose the one that suits you best.
The heatsink base itself is bowed just slightly to make a convex curve that creates for a better contact surface with the CPU. The tension between two slightly convex surfaces creates a contact resolution that is better than two concave surfaces, because that leaves a big gap in the center of the connection. Many professional PC enthusiasts lap their CPU and heat sink, to eliminate the three things that can cause bad contact.
The first is the concave part, which bows out slightly, the next is the concave, or bowed inward leaving a gap in the center, and lastly and the worst scenario the wavy product, that has various high and low spots. The reason that the wavy is the worst is that contact cannot be made evenly in enough space to make a solid bond, the concave part will be missing a space in the center, but there will be contact around the edges for a decent bond.
The only thing we didn’t like about CM Sphere is that it doesn’t provide any speed control for its fan, so it is always running at its maximum speed (and thus producing its maximum noise level). It uses the traditional 3-pin connector, meaning that the fan speed isn’t automatically controlled according to the CPU usage, as it happens on fans using four wires.
These coolers are not for avant-garde overclockers, nor were they designed with the overclocker in mind. I have read a few reviews on line where this product gets kicked in the proverbial nut sack for being crappy for overclocking, but why? It’s not even made for that environment. The CM Sphere works much better that the stock Intel retail box heatsink, which works just fine for standard usage and also is not geared for overclocking. Under full load the copper version ran at just above 32C and the Jet black at 34C on the Intel and on the AMD system the copper ran at 38C and the Jet Black at 41C. The cooling fan is very silent and if noise is something you wish to avoid, the CM Sphere is something worthy of your consideration.
