The second problem is something I can’t take a picture of. When I manually spin the first fan, it makes a very slight “clicking” noise, rubbing up against something. It’s very hard to notice, but it does slow the fan down much faster when compared to the newer fan. I think that it could be enough extra drag that when it is set on low power, it might not be able to spin fast enough.

   When I did the re-test, the only thing I changed, was the position of my 7800GT card. I found out what part of my Sound Blaster 2 PCI card was preventing the mounting bracket from being installed. A very small metal screw rises just high enough up to cause a problem. Instead of removing my soundcard, I just swapped my 6600GT with my 7800GT. It was much easier to see just how much space the cooler takes up. I had to make sure my 6600GT was secured as low as possible, and the 7800GT was as high as possible. Even then there is very little clearance.

That blocks the mount

Top PCI-E slot

Still too close

    The noise of the new fan is quite a bit lower than the first, which definitely lends the theory that something was wrong with the first one. On high setting, it is still too loud for watching movies or anything like that. But for most games it wouldn’t be extremely distracting. On low power it's not silent, but hard drive noises tend to overpower it most of the time.

New Temperatures:

Temps

   Much better performance on the low section. Doesn’t even compare actually. And a small drop in the high setting temperatures as well.

Updated conclusion:

Testing

Fan off

Cooling down quick

   Well, they we right to question the temperature results of my first test, no qualms about that. Sitting at 61 on "low" was only 7 or 8 degrees cooler than having no fan at all. So it really must have been moving a tiny amount of air before. But really, that wasn’t my biggest complaint against this cooler anyway.

   I STILL do not like the “build your own cooler” label, and no one is going to convince me that I would be the only one expecting “more” because of the name. The mounting bracket is just the bane of my existence whenever I have to deal with it.

   If their next version has a mounting bracket that is easier to work around/with and is more compatible with SLI (and other PCI cards), I might change my mind about recommending the KuFormula. until then, my conclusion stands as is.

Conclusion:

   When I review items, I try to use them for as long as I can before I do a review. It helps me get a true feel for both the performance of an item, but to also get over any initial biases I might have. In this case, I just could not stand the cooler. Between it’s large size forcing me to remove my sound card 2 slots away from it, and loud noise, I couldn’t justify keeping it in. One other problem is, that with my Titan Water case, I could not close the side panel because the fans on the radiator would have been right in the middle of the cross flow fan.

Between what I would call “misleading” marketing in the form of “build your own cooler” (how is it different from any other cooler you have to mount yourself?) and the other problems I’ve discussed, I could not recommend anyone getting this cooler.

Pros:

• Interesting fan

• Great “high power” performance

Cons:

• Loud

• Poor “low power” performance

• Misleading naming

• ‘3’ slot cooling

   Head over to the forum thread on this product to find out the aftermath of less-than-favorable original review and the updates on the 2nd unit. It's a must read if you're interested in this product.