Top Tier CPU Air Coolers Q3 2015: 9-Way Roundup Review

The Reeven Okeanos RC-1402

Reeven is a Taiwanese newcomer in the industry. Naturally, most people reading this probably never even heard the company name before today. The company was founded just over a year ago and currently only offers CPU coolers, fans and fan controllers. Reeven sent us their most powerful CPU cooler as well, the Okeanos (RC-1402).

The box that the Reeven comes supplied in is relatively small. Nevertheless, the protection appears adequate, with polyethylene foam protecting the cooler and the bundled items packed inside a cardboard box.

The bundle is a little crudely packed and virtually kept to a minimum. Reeven supplies only the hardware necessary for the mounting of the cooler, a single dose of thermal grease, wire clips for up to three cooling fans, speed reducers for the two provided fans and a leaflet with basic installation instructions.

Reeven supplies two cooling fans alongside with the Okeanos, one 120 mm and one 140 mm fan. Both fans have black frames and genista yellow blades. These are relatively simple models, with sleeve bearings, lacking fancy blades or vibration absorbers. There is one thing of note about these two fans though: they are ridiculously powerful, with the 140 mm and the 120 mm fan rated for a maximum speed of 1700 RPM and 1800 RPM respectively.

The Okeanos is a symmetric dual tower CPU cooler, with strangely narrow towers for its class. Although the difference is very small, the fins of each tower are not precisely geometrically symmetric, with the front side having three small and the rear side one long indentations. The top fin is a 1 mm thick aluminum cover with the company logo punched on it.

The wire fan installation clips do allow moving the front fan upwards in order to gain some RAM clearance - as long as the case is wide enough, of course. Installation-wise, they are a bit of a pain, as Reeven's approach is far too crude, with the wire clips just going straight into the fan holes and clipping onto the side of the fan.

Furthermore, the frame of the 120 mm fan just barely touches the extruded sides of the fins. It is very easy for the 120 mm fan to be installed with only one side on the extruded fins, increasing noise and reducing performance.

Even though the Okeanos initially looks very simple, the bottom of the cooler makes it very interesting. The base is split between a nickel-plated copper lower part and a steel top part, providing mechanical cohesion and retention. In between these two parts, there are six heatpipes, secured with a very generous amount of solder. The two central heatpipes are 8 mm thick, while the other four heatpipes are 6 mm thick, making this the only cooler with an asymmetric heatpipe configuration in our review. The contact surface is well polished and free of imperfections, yet not machined down to a perfect mirror finish.