Raijintek Eleos 12 Evo RBW Review: More Pipes, Fewer Fans

Raijintek’s solutions to LGA-1700 cooling needs may have begun with the launch of its Eleos 12 Duo RBW (see our review), but the company followed that model with a single-fan version only a week later. Boasting 50% more heat pipes and 50% fewer fans, the Eleos 12 Evo RBW appeared better situated for builders who wouldn’t have room for dual-fan cooling towers.

Alternative fitments for the Evo match those of the Duo, with a mounting kit that appears nearly identical between these two models. That means AMD Socket AM3 through AM4 also apply, as well as LGA 115x through 1700. These aren’t completely identical though as Raijintek notched the Evo’s mounting brackets to accommodate the wider base it needed to hold its extra heat pipes. The Evo also includes an unused pair of wire clips for adding a second fan, whereas the Duo’s second fan was included in the package.

Though it has a similar finish to the previously-reviewed Duo, the Eleos 12 Evo RBW’s base has gaps around heat pipe edges that must be filled with thermal compound. The Duo version lacked any such voids. Also seen here are the PWM power connector and included ARGB splitter cable, the later making it easy to add a second fan.

Based on a non-offset heat sink, the Eleos 12 Evo RBW ends up protruding by the thickness of the fan from whichever side the fan is mounted.

Performance

We’ve mounted Intel’s Core i9-12900KF to ASRock’s Z690 Tiachi to test the Eleos 12 Evo RBW at its maximum rated spec.

Test Hardware Configuration
CPU	Intel Core i9-12900KF: 16C/24T, 3.2-5.2 GHz, 30 MB L3 Cache, LGA 1700
Motherboard	ASRock Z690 Taichi: LGA 1700, Z690 PCH, DDR5
Memory	1.35V Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB DDR5-5600 2x16GB (32GB)
Graphics	Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2070 Gaming OC 8G: 1410-1725 MHz GPU, GDDR6
Power	be quiet! Dark Power Pro 10 850W: ATX12V v2.3, EPS12V, 80 PLUS Platinum
Hard Drive	TOSHIBA OCZ RD400 256GB NVMe 1.1b SSD
Sound	Integrated HD Audio
Network	Integrated Wi-Fi
Graphics Driver	GeForce 496.49
Test Configuration
Load Software	Prime95 v 30.7, small FFTs
H/W Monitoring	HWiNFO64 v6.28-4200
SPL Monitoring	Galaxy CM-140 SPL Meter: Tested at 1/4 m, corrected to 1 m (-12 dB)

As with the previously reviewed Duo version, the Eleos 12 Evo RBW needs only pass our test to win some form of approval. And for that, it will need to hold our CPU at its full-load CPU core multipliers of 48x (P-cores) and 37x (E-cores) in a 21° environment.

The Evo RBW’s core average temperatures look really low, so it’s a great thing we also tracked package temperatures. Those are through the roof!

Voltage regulator temperatures also appeared on their way to a spike before suddenly tapering off and then flattening. What’s going on here?

The problem of weird thermal reading can be solved by looking at the frequency graph. Our CPU responded to overheating by throttling back, then ramping up, repeatedly. The Eleos 12 Evo RBW was never going to keep our CPU at its expected clocks.

Anatomy Of A Failure

To begin with, the Eleos 12 Evo RBW probably had enough cooling potential to save our CPU from throttling, but only due to its additional heat pipes. The problem we discovered was that its outer heat pipe barely made any contact with our CPU’s heat spreader. The solution would have been to turn the cooler sideways, since the CPU’s rectangular heat spreader would have matched the cooler’s rectangular base in that direction. Unfortunately, the cooler’s 35mm clearance is not sufficient to clear Corsair’s 56mm-tall Dominator Platinum RGB DDR5-5600.

Get it at Amazon

(click for availability)

The non-K version of Intel’s Core i9-12900 operates at 100MHz lower frequency, and this cooler might be able to hold up its rated frequency at a similar load, but remember that the frequency bouncing will occur if thermal limits are even touched. The best rationale to qualify the Eleos 12 Evo RBW as a universal LGA 1700 solution would be to state that most users won’t be running Prime95 small FFTs continuously, but we won’t be altering our test methods simply to accommodate such rationalization.

Pros:	Cons:
Lightweight for reduced board strain ARGB offers more patterns than RGB Economically Priced	Insufficient for our brutal test conditions No current stock at major US sellers
The Verdict:
While not sufficient to cool our Core i9-12900KF at max load, the inexpensive Raijintek Eleos 12 Evo RBW gets close enough that it could be a great value to builders who use Core i7-12700 or below CPU models. As we didn’t test it that way, experienced builders should use their own good judgment.