Very good results. Although yet another big heatsink with push pins is not pleasing. Is this another one that can be used with the TR backplate better mounting?

I wonder how long before TR release the successor to the TRUE which has direct heatpipe touching. When done right they do provide a boost, that much is clear from results here.

Consider the weight -- just 600g WITH a 120mm fan. Means the HS by itself is under 450g. Personally, I think the pins are perfectly safe here.

Ahh thats not bad, i must have misread it as 600g on its own, which is still too heavy for pushpins IMO. 600g all inclusive is considerably lighter than the models its up against. Very impressive that is can match them.

The spacing between the grooved plate and the actual heatpipes look a bit large. I'm curious as to what the thermal paste looked like after removing the heatsink. From the images, it looks like they just stuck the heatpipes in place and sliced off the botom.

The big-boys in the heatsink world are in for a nasty shock when they read this review.

All of the other reviews confirm SPCR's findings (no shock there), that this is a monster cooler, putting it right behind the TRUE, and it is available right now at a cost of £23 inc VAT (scan).

The only way this could be improved upon is with different mounting options for AMD and Intel systems and another heatpipe - meet its big brother.

http://www.xigmatek.com/product/air-achilless1284.php


Andy

Good results for a heatsink that costs half of what TRUE goes for. That's even cheaper than Ninja which typically goes at $35 + shipping in the US.

As far as push pins go, I would imagine you could use TR bolt through kit with it as well.

Why couldn't they have included a S478 adapter as well? This would be great in my T7200 desktop system. <sigh>

-D

Yeah, there are small gaps, but who cares if the results are as good as they are? It's hard to know exactly how the heatpipes were flattened and bonded to the grooved plate. They probably cut/ground/machined it but, they'd have had to flatten it too, otherwise, the heatpipe wall might be perforated. Maybe we'll have to tear one apart to see.

I like destruction

I think it'll be worth ripping one apart. Would be interesting considering the price just how good the build quality is around the pipes.

If i didnt just buy a ninja (Rev B, which im still not totally happy with) id definitely get one of these. Hell i still might so i can do some direct comparisons between the 2 in my less than ideal real world condition and sell one of them on ebay.

Not accusatorial at all here - I just happened to notice what I may mistakenly believe is a discrepency in the review of the 1283 about the temperature rise over ambient...

On Page 5 the Cooling Results chart shows:
HDT-S1283 w/ reference fan
12V, 13 deg rise
9V, 15 deg rise
7V, 18 deg rise

Yet on page 6 the Comparables chart states:
HDT-S1283 w/ reference fan
12V, 21 deg rise
9V, 26 deg rise
7V, 29 deg rise

At first I thought that maybe the Comparables chart meant to use the 1283 with the stock fan, but even the testing on page 5 with the stock fan showed different temp numbers. Then I thought maybe its because the Nexus doesn't push as much air, but that would mean the the reference numbers on page 5 don't match. I think I may have just confused myself!

Or is it just me? I am certainly willing to accept that fact!

It might not just be you, others may be just as confused, too. Which means it's us... our fault, anyway.

I have to remind you that we're testing TWO heatsinks here -- the S1283 as well as the SD964. The difference in the data on those 2 pages is that page 5 is about the S1283 and page 6 is about SD964.

Well, looks like my prediction that direct-touch was probably more marketing hype than anything real was off.

Thanks for testing these.

"the fan will end up blowing toward the power supply rather than toward the rear exhaust."

Isn't that like a fatal flaw with this design?

MikeC,

I have seen a model HDT S-1264 that looks like it might have most of the cooling capacity of the S1283 that was reviewed, plus is down-firing. Seems that orientation might provide a little extra airflow to the RAM, Northbridge and MOSFETS. They didn't happen to include one of those to review too did they?

I liked the 92mm fan one (SD964), wonder how it compares to the TR Ultima90 and Noctua UH90(?). The S1283 is very impressive too, though probably overkill for any system I'd build.

Hello,

I probably missed it, but what fan is the 92mm reference fan?

Thank you.

An excellent review of what look to be 2 cracking units

I believe the ref 92mm fan is the REAL SILENT CASE FAN DF1209SL-3

I could be wrong though

Will you be reviewing the new Battleaxe VGA cooler from Xigmatek soon?
That looks pretty damn good too. X-Bit labs reviewed it recently but I'd like to see it reviewed from a silent perspective if possible

Interesting review.

One point of objection. In the summary you say:

While earlier on you said:

I think you can leave it out the bad points of the summary. It cools very well, with the stock Intel pushpins and the mounting seems good. So why a bad point? I know you don't like the pushpins and I know why. But here it's sufficient.
It looks to me as if you have something personal to these pushpins, even metioning them as bad when they are not.

What orientation will the HDT-S1283 be on this Asus A8V Deluxe (K8 939) board?

Since the hooks are on the right and the left, the fan will be blowing to the right (on the picture), to the PSU (in a case).

Damn, that's not what I wanted Thanks Floris.

I personally don't trust this "direct touch" approach, I firmly believe that heatpipes should be protected from the mounting pressure (and accidents).
Those who want to use these heatsinks however, should know that they perform better on larger (older process) CPU dies, as shown in a Xbitlabs review.
When using on a 45nm CPU the performance could be dissapointing. Of course, SPCR shouldn't have tested them *only* on an obsolete 65 nm CPU.
One more thought: the Xbitlabs review found out that the orientation of the 8 mm heatpipes matters a lot (but they tested the Xigmatek D1284).

Hello,

Well, less is more in this case! With "only" six (well, each end of three) heatpipes, and as explained in the review, the transfer to those heatpipes is absolutely critical.

The big Thermalright and the Ninja have TWICE as many heatpipes, and the progression of the bases on the Ninja has shown (I think) that the base is the critical piece of the design and it's execution.

Less is definitely more.

Haven't we already been through this.

Most modern CPUs have the IHS, and it does the job well enough. C'mon, you can't argue with the numbers. Besides, the actual size of the cores is increasing as well, since they add transitors and cache with most updates.

Hello,

It looks like NewEgg has a nearly identical version -- the only difference is it has a transparent red fan, and it costs $3 more.

There is a similar KingWin HSF (and is $2 less) -- BUT, it sure looks like it uses 6mm heatpipes; rather than the 8mm that the Xigmatek:




[Edit: It may be that a couple of the photos of the KingWin at NewEgg are of the 92mm unit? The proportions of the width to the depth are not right... ]

The 92mm one has place for 2 fans and should have 4 heatpipes. Neither I can see on the photo's.

Vick1000,

The size of cores is shrinking. Each time they go to a smaller geometry, the area for the same number of transistors is cut in half. In some instances, they may add in more cache, but not enough to offset the gain they made in the geometry shrink. One of the main driving forces for them to do it is so that they get more parts per silicon wafer.

What concerns some folks is that the heat per square mm is going up, and with the IHS, there is two layers of heatsink compound (and some contend the one under the IHS is not all that great) plus an extra layer of metal, and it is not even copper.

I don't see why we can't hold both opinions at the same time? They are not really self-contradictory. Yes, it works well enough but it could be better -- and we'd be happier with a better mounting system. And yes, we do have something personal against the pushpins -- umpteen cuts and many drops of blood trying to use them over the years with many different HS. This does tend to create a certain attitude.