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CoolerMaster xDream Special Edition Review

Author: Dennis Garcia

Published: Saturday, March 08, 2003

Introduction

Not to long ago we reviewed a new hybrid heatsink from CoolerMaster called the 'xDream'. The heatsink featured a copper core aluminum fin design and used a variable speed 80mm fan to provide the cooling power. Coolermaster has now announced an upgrade to this amazing cooler called the xDream Special Edition.

The new cooler is much like the original with one major difference, the heatsink is solid copper. Normally I shy away from the all copper designs for a variety of reasons. Copper heatsinks are naturally heaver than their hybrid or aluminum counterparts and due to the thermal nature of copper a more powerful fan is required to keep them cool. Despite these things the overclocking crowd enjoys the copper designs for their amazing performance. Lets see what the xDream SE has to offer.

Since the xDream SE includes a variable speed fan you will need a way to mount the control knob in your computer. Unlike the original xDream CoolerMaster has included two ways to mount the speed control knob, one will fit in an available expansion slot whereas the other will fit into any 3.5" drive bay. Of course those are only two of the many possibilities. Other included items are shown below.

For a size comparison here is the original xDream next to the Special Edition one. As you can see the heatsink is quite a bit larger though doesn't really weigh that much more considering its size.