Thanks go to Ken1307 for selling this to me through the OcUK MM 
Well, the Xigmatek turned up at my home yesterday, so had a fun night of fitting and testing this little monstrosity to see if really as up there with the Tuniq's and TRUEs of this world.
I never really got on with my Tuniq Tower 120 LED, although performance was good enough it does not fit my case on the removable motherboard tray and allow the tray to be installed - the cross-bar that supports the case lengthways simply prevented the Tuniq from fitting inside the case. Also, at top speed, the fan speed was just the wrong side of annoying for me personally.
I do miss my TRUE of old but don't have the funds to get a new one at present, saw the Xigmatek up for grabs and thought "Why not?" for the price.
Like many on here would do, I'd done my homework (http://www.frostytech.com/) being a particular favourite site to visit) and seen that apparently this sink can really do the business.
For images, see the manufacturer website here: http://www.xigmatek.com/product/air-hdts1283.php
So onwards...
PC Specs
My current PC is slowly getting there in terms of spec, but the main parts in relation to this mini-review are:
The tower itself is well constructed, solid and looks the part. The base itself is what should draw your attention though - the Heatpipes are large diameter (8mm) and also directly exposed to the surface of your CPU.
Heatsink Installation
I was really surprised by the installation, actually. I'm used to bolt thru methods from using both a Tuniq Tower and TRUE 120 but with having to use a stock Intel retail cooler recently (yuck, I know) I was expecting to get on with the push pins a lot better than what I did here.
In theory, the installation is simple enough. Screw in the two attachment plates to the base of the Heatsink, press down onto CPU, then PUSH the PushPin design atachments through the board so that they snap into place.
Now, my case isn't exactly the smallest in the world (although my motherboard does have a huge amount of copper all over the mosfets) but I did have trouble trying to fit the tower into the case without removing the motherboard at all. In fact, after several attempts to fit properly, I noticed that one corner pushpin just would not snap into place properly, and I ended up removing the board.
In fact, I do recommend that you remove the board before installing. By doing this, once fitted you can easily check to see that the pushpins have snapped into place properly underneath the motherboard. I feel that I can rest easy knowing that the Heatsink is fitted properly now.
Fan Installation
I know others on the site have issues with the fan mounting system on the Xigmatek, but I found it to be pleasantly suprising.
The fan is mounted on 4 rubber mounts that you have to (with some effort) pull through the first hole on the fan frame. There is then a rubber 'clip' that fits inside the fins on the heatsink, securing it in place but distancing the fan from the heatsink on a rubber mount to stop it from vibrating against the heatsink.
It worked out well for me. After fitting the heatsink to the motherbaord, I then replaced the motherbaord tray back into the case and fitted the fan with it inside the heatsink already in situ. It tried it a few times, and found that I could easily remove the fan for cleaning if need be. Happy here!
Power & Noise
I choose to fit the fan header directly to the motherbaord, rather than using the included molex adaptor which looks like it spins the fan at 7v. At full tilt, the fan produces a close noise level to the Tuniq Tower but I would say around 15-20% less so. There was no whine from the fan motor and overall had the impression that it was a good measure quieter than the Tuniq. So bonus points here for a decent fan being included with the Heatsink!
Overclocking & Temperatures
At the moment I've a relatively mild overclock on my CPu, from 2.13Ghz(266x8) to just 2.66Ghz(333x8) with board on full defaults apart from FSB increase.
Load temperatures were measured after a solid 8 hours of Prime95 testing Small FFTs. Gave me a chance to see how solid the board is with just defaults.
Xeon X3210 - 2.66ghz - Xigmatek
Idle - 31,31,30,29
Load - 51,50,49,49
This is a really good start for me - as with the Tuniq Tower I was seeing temperatures in the Mid 50's (56,57,52,54 from memory), and also variances of 4-5 degress instead of 2-3 across the cores.
Results
Happy! I'm not going to rate it out of 10, but will definitly be keeping this cooler for some further testing.
It will be interesting to see how much the heatsink can handle the increased heatload with further 8 hour Prime stable overclocks. With the additional voltage I can expect to see upto another 10C degress increase atleast when I start topping out the overclock.
I'll update thi spost with further overclock attempts and also, thanks to the EPU chip, be able to post the watt usage of the chip at differing overclocks.
Any comments and feedback is always welcome
Merry Christmas - Arthalen
Well, the Xigmatek turned up at my home yesterday, so had a fun night of fitting and testing this little monstrosity to see if really as up there with the Tuniq's and TRUEs of this world.
I never really got on with my Tuniq Tower 120 LED, although performance was good enough it does not fit my case on the removable motherboard tray and allow the tray to be installed - the cross-bar that supports the case lengthways simply prevented the Tuniq from fitting inside the case. Also, at top speed, the fan speed was just the wrong side of annoying for me personally.
I do miss my TRUE of old but don't have the funds to get a new one at present, saw the Xigmatek up for grabs and thought "Why not?" for the price.
Like many on here would do, I'd done my homework (http://www.frostytech.com/) being a particular favourite site to visit) and seen that apparently this sink can really do the business.
For images, see the manufacturer website here: http://www.xigmatek.com/product/air-hdts1283.php
So onwards...
PC Specs
My current PC is slowly getting there in terms of spec, but the main parts in relation to this mini-review are:
- Lian-Li A70B Full Tower Case
- Intel Xeon X3210 Quad CPU (1.325 VID)
- Asus X38 Maximus Formula (flashed with Rampage Formula BIOS)
- Case is fitted with 4x Yate Loon 120mm running at 7v.
The tower itself is well constructed, solid and looks the part. The base itself is what should draw your attention though - the Heatpipes are large diameter (8mm) and also directly exposed to the surface of your CPU.
Heatsink Installation
I was really surprised by the installation, actually. I'm used to bolt thru methods from using both a Tuniq Tower and TRUE 120 but with having to use a stock Intel retail cooler recently (yuck, I know) I was expecting to get on with the push pins a lot better than what I did here.
In theory, the installation is simple enough. Screw in the two attachment plates to the base of the Heatsink, press down onto CPU, then PUSH the PushPin design atachments through the board so that they snap into place.
Now, my case isn't exactly the smallest in the world (although my motherboard does have a huge amount of copper all over the mosfets) but I did have trouble trying to fit the tower into the case without removing the motherboard at all. In fact, after several attempts to fit properly, I noticed that one corner pushpin just would not snap into place properly, and I ended up removing the board.
In fact, I do recommend that you remove the board before installing. By doing this, once fitted you can easily check to see that the pushpins have snapped into place properly underneath the motherboard. I feel that I can rest easy knowing that the Heatsink is fitted properly now.
Fan Installation
I know others on the site have issues with the fan mounting system on the Xigmatek, but I found it to be pleasantly suprising.
The fan is mounted on 4 rubber mounts that you have to (with some effort) pull through the first hole on the fan frame. There is then a rubber 'clip' that fits inside the fins on the heatsink, securing it in place but distancing the fan from the heatsink on a rubber mount to stop it from vibrating against the heatsink.
It worked out well for me. After fitting the heatsink to the motherbaord, I then replaced the motherbaord tray back into the case and fitted the fan with it inside the heatsink already in situ. It tried it a few times, and found that I could easily remove the fan for cleaning if need be. Happy here!
Power & Noise
I choose to fit the fan header directly to the motherbaord, rather than using the included molex adaptor which looks like it spins the fan at 7v. At full tilt, the fan produces a close noise level to the Tuniq Tower but I would say around 15-20% less so. There was no whine from the fan motor and overall had the impression that it was a good measure quieter than the Tuniq. So bonus points here for a decent fan being included with the Heatsink!
Overclocking & Temperatures
At the moment I've a relatively mild overclock on my CPu, from 2.13Ghz(266x8) to just 2.66Ghz(333x8) with board on full defaults apart from FSB increase.
Load temperatures were measured after a solid 8 hours of Prime95 testing Small FFTs. Gave me a chance to see how solid the board is with just defaults.
Xeon X3210 - 2.66ghz - Xigmatek
Idle - 31,31,30,29
Load - 51,50,49,49
This is a really good start for me - as with the Tuniq Tower I was seeing temperatures in the Mid 50's (56,57,52,54 from memory), and also variances of 4-5 degress instead of 2-3 across the cores.
Results
Happy! I'm not going to rate it out of 10, but will definitly be keeping this cooler for some further testing.
It will be interesting to see how much the heatsink can handle the increased heatload with further 8 hour Prime stable overclocks. With the additional voltage I can expect to see upto another 10C degress increase atleast when I start topping out the overclock.
I'll update thi spost with further overclock attempts and also, thanks to the EPU chip, be able to post the watt usage of the chip at differing overclocks.
Any comments and feedback is always welcome
Merry Christmas - Arthalen
