Sometimes your cooler does not have to be as big as a softball, and sometimes it does not need to be priced like it is made out of gold. For $36 USD the Spire TherMax Pro fills a niche in the budget builder's parts list, being priced at less than half of many of its competitors. Savings come at a cost though, because this cooler does not have the solid feel to it, and the construction just looks and feels what it is: cheap. Although it performed well against stock cooling on an AMD dual-core, the fact that the cooler has only three heatpipes is not going to help it tackle the hot i7/i5 chips.

I would recommend the Spire TherMax Pro to a builder on a budget who was not planning to overclock. It does well with dual core chips and is a definite improvement over stock cooling as we have seen. As far as quad-core performance rigs are concerned, the Spire cooler just does not make the cut. Although it is advertised for i7 quads, I can't see it taking that level of heat. The fact is, to see any kind of real performance out of a cooler with this construction, you will need to put some real time and effort into a lapping job as well as modify it for a push/pull fan configuration, which it just isn't designed for. Do yourself a favor and drop some more cash on a high-performance cooler for a high-performance rig. The Spire TherMax Pro earns the OCIA.net Bronze Seal of Approval.