Let’s face it. When it comes to choosing the CPU cooling package that’s right for you and your budget, it’s a lot like buying a car. The salesman will talk up every minute detail in glorious form and the engineers add every extra little bell and whistle they can. All in all, while it may be pretty package, a large percentage of folks are more curious as to how it handles and performs. In that respect, today we’ll be looking at the Cooler Master’s latest entry into the heat sink field, the Aero 7+. While it may not be a totally new idea from the minds at Cooler Master, it is an improvement upon their previous Aero line.

At first look, the heat sink looks like your typical copper base with skived fins, but one quickly notices the odd-shaped clear/aqua colored fan that sits atop. It is this unusual looking fan that sets the Aero 7+ apart from other cooling setups. Unlike the common axial type fans you’ll find with most heat sinks, the Aero 7+ uses what’s referred to as a blower fan, similar in design to what you’d find inside the housing of a turbo charger.

Now you may be asking yourself “How is it really better than a normal fan?”, after all, a fan of any kind still just moves air right? Well, to explain it, let’s first take a look at airflow movements created by each type of fan.

As you’ll notice, axial based fans have what’s commonly referred to as a “dead air” zone directly below the fan “hub”. What this translates to is that the hottest portion of your heat sink, the area directly above the CPU die, is getting the least amount of air flow. That is unless you’ve gone so far as to construct a way of moving the fan further from the heat sink, via a shroud or similar means, etc. Now as can be seen, with a blower style design, you basically eliminate that dead area and provide more moving air across the center area. Well, or at least that’s the theory so let’s get this puppy hooked up and see if the theory holds true to the real world of computing.