Hmm...
I wonder how bendable those xigmatek heat pipes are....
Might it be possible to bend them so the HS is entirely outside the case...?

An enlightenening review of a popular manufacturer of so-so equipment and a rising star.

May I trouble you with a couple of minor quibbles.

Can I just confirm something on page-6, the Big Typhoon VX's fan measures 1Db quieter on its own @ 9v than when its mounted on the heatsink. This is obviously within the margins of error, but is the fan actually quieter when installed on the heatsink.?

The other quibble is on page-8, when describing the "Pro's" of the Big Typhoon VX, you listed "Better than original Big Typhoon", so is the "Xigmatek HDT-D1284"....... by a fair margin in all areas. Although the statement in itself is true, the original is still not a worthy competitor in the field and I dont believe that it is rightful to add as a "Pro" point.

As a side note, has Xigmatek sent you the HDT-D1264

http://www.xigmatek.com/product/air-hdtd1264.php

This is the same design, but uses 6mm wide heatpipes. If the heatpipe spacing between heatpipes is the same, it might actually perform better, due to more (some) contact between the 2 outside heatpipes and the CPU. Any thoughts.???


Andy

The Xigmatek HDT-D1284 is also sold by Nexus as the HOC-9000:
http://www.nexustek.nl/HOC-9000_universal_high_performance_cpu_cooler.htm

They sell it with a slower fan:

Speed: PWM controlled, 600~1500 RPM
Noise level: 17 dB(A) ~ 21.6 dB(A)
Bearing: Hypro bearing


As a sidenote, I also noticed the "similarities" between the Nexus Caterpillar case and the Xilence X1. Maybe these "X" companies stick together or something...

I'll be.... I just spent the week-end installing a Scythe Zipang in my current project. I was tempted to buy the Xigmatek, but it didn't come with a socket 478 mount. I'm happy with the Zipang, which is similar to these two coolers.....with one big exception. It comes with a 140x25mm fan. A very quiet fan to be sure, but it didn't develop enough pressure to keep the board components cool enough for me. The CPU ran cool enough, but the Zone1 sensor near the CPU socket was reading almost 10C hotter than the CPU. Go figure......the XP-120 this Zipang replaced cooled the board better, but the CPU much worse.

I ended up trying a bunch of different fans and settled on a 140x20 Aerocool.....which cools better than the Scythe 140x25, at only slightly more noise.

I'm curious how the Zipang would compare to these coolers..... bet it would beat both of them, with a stronger fan of course.

Sweet! Thanks for the review MikeC. I do not know if you noticed, but I had asked if you also got one of the down-firing Xigmatec's when you posted the earlier review, so I will pretend this was all for me.

Also, I was curious about relative prices for the heatsinks mentioned in the review, and at Newegg, the Xigmatec and Asus Triton both have $15 rebates with the Triton being about $6 or $7 more but even that was just under $32 delivered after rebate.

"Our thanks to Thermaltake and Xigmatek for the heatsink samples."

Not only did Thermaltake not know how to design a HSF, but they sent one in to SPCR anyway to highlight the poor performance. I could say some bad things about TT products, but since they have such great market distribution, I'd like to see them improve. Perhaps their heatsink sample is a sign of wanting to improve. Maybe send them back a checklist of issues that caused the poor review? No rubber fanmounts/grommets, insufficient pushpin mounting, and any basic design issues it has (eg. the base is held together with screws, maybe the 2 90 degree turns in the heatpipes are inefficient, etc). The fan is loud, and that's expected from the overclocker company, but there must be some basic design flaws that make their products perform like this. With their incredible market penetration (aside from diversification, else they'd have a quiet HSF that isn't a lie), they must have been raking in the cash for a decade, so they should be able to compete by now. Had they worked on quality, Thermalright and Zalman would never have had a market.

On the other hand, a Thermaltake review is a good thing. The conclusion was somewhat foregone, but now it's established by the best name in reviews.

I really cant see why TT refuses point blank to put quiet fans on their products. Even a extreme overclocker must appreciate that their fans are much louder without moving more air than a dozen or more rivals.
Its amazing how many times ive changed 1 fan in someone system and they've been amazed at how much quieter it is. Most people get used to the noise and dont realise that they can do so much better with little effort if they just shop for the right parts.

I am not so sure those fan isolators on the HDT-D1264 to hold the fan are such a great idea. I know from having the Thermalright SI 120 that the fan has to be removed periodically to clean the heatsink fins, and I wonder how well those rubber isolators on the D1264 will hold up. Suppose one or more of those rubber isolators break?

With my Thermalright, there is a rubber strip that gets attached to the heatsink so the fan doesn't mount fully against the fins.

Periodically removing the fan on the HDT-D1264 may or may not play havoc with those rubber isolators, but I for one wouldn't want to take the chance. Okay, call me chicken.

I purchased the D1264 for my new Q6600 build, and so far it's been ok. Installation was a nightmare, given that the pushpins required so much force to click into place, and when I pushed one corner in it would pop out when I went for the other corner. Needless to say the end result wasn't too great, no doubt there is plenty of air trapped at the HS/CPU junction due to all the lifting off/on I did in trying to get the damn thing on. (I am new to Socket 775, and this was NOT a good introduction...) The installation also left a noticeable bulge on the motherboard directly below the CPU area. I am surprised something like this can be tolerated!
=====
Anyway novel aside, I need to ask a question: Will fingers be enough to sufficiently tighten the screws of the Thermalright 775 bolt-thru kit? Given that the design of this heatsink effectively blocks everything below, including the mounting pins, I probably won't be able to use a mechanical means of tightening the screws. And sadly, it doesn't look like the screws in the kit are knurled or otherwise made for turning with the bare hands. Yet I cannot let things stand as they are; the CPU temps go out of control after 3 minutes when I run Prime95x4. Clearly something's not right, and I'm willing to bet it's the poor mounting I did with the pins.

Fingers -- probably not.

I suspect the reasons for the unexpectedly poor performance you're getting are that:

1) the tension on the HS/CPU interface is uneven -- perhaps one pin is not as secure as the others.
2) there isn't enough TIM. What happens with these heatpipe-direct-touch bases is that the seams soak up a lot of TIM. You need to put a lot more than normal -- I'd say as much as double. My rule of thumb is about a BB sized glob of TIM; w/ the xigmateks, I recommend 2 BBs' worth. It may make a mess tho. Perhaps it's best to apply a gob on the HS base, and rub it in. Then apply another gob on the CPU before actual mounting.

Actually I don't think you need the Thermalright 775 bolt-thru kit. We got very good performance with just the pins, but we installed them with the board out in the open. You're going to have to pull the motherboard out to do this anyway -- why not pull it out now (with the HS in place) and examine the pins? With the board out of the case, you will be able to secure all 4 pins better -- and test again.

They're actually quite well-made. I wouldn't be too worried about them.



This is probably the case. A lot of thermal compound falls in between the cracks between the heatpipes and the mounting plate.

A key motivation for the bolt thru kit was to reduce the amount of motherboard flexing under the socket since it comes with a back plate. It might not be such a big deal in practice but I do move my PC from time to time and I wonder sometimes if that might not become a failure point.

I will make sure to use more TIM (using Ceramique) since I do admit I was a bit stingy with it. Thanks for the advice - I really don't like the idea of having a system that can't sustain 100% for more than a few minutes without throttling! (It's not even OC'd!)

A question about the push pins: you didn't mention any difficulties with installation. Is there anything special you did? I had a lot of troubles with the pins popping out when I pushed one corner in and tried for the next one.

Two reviews of Thermaltake products in short session, what’s going on here?

Good reviews

Important Question

Why use the nexus 120 fan for a reference fan for testing heatsinks when its a sleeve design?

Ordinary folk cant use it since its not made for high heat conditions and it will break down quickly.

Welcome to SPCR, Direwolf.

This issue has probably been discussed before, in the distant past, but basically there are no compelling reasons not to use a sleeve bearing for a CPU cooler. Yes, under full load, less than ideal airflow conditions, the fan might be subject to >60C temps; this could lead to faster wear... but in most systems, such temps are not frequent. It's not atypical to see <50C CPU temps >90% of the time in a well design system/config.

More importantly, the Nexus has long been a reference quiet fan. Not that it's the quietest, but it's quiet, fairly consistent, easy for most folks to source, and we have a database of hundreds of reviews which have used it as a reference point. There are no 120mm ball-bearing fans we've come across that are as quiet -- all other alternatives are sleeve bearing or sleeve bearing variant fans.

Thanks a lot for the information. I was a bit hesitant to get one because I've heard its bad for a heatsink fan.

Love the reviews btw.

I wonder how many other heatsinks have heatpipes where the outer ones aren't fully touching the CPU IHS, and what the performance difference would be if they did...

That said, seeing more heatsinsk like this with 8mm heatpipes confirms their efficiency.

These hsfs are calling my name right now, particularly with the incredible low AR price at nearly all etailers.

I do have a couple of questions and/or a request for MikeC...

a) The performance difference between the 6mm and 8mm heatpipes MAY warrant a review...even by users if Mike's not willing.

b) The orientation may make a huge difference and I believe that would be worthy of a MikeC comparative review/guide...east/west vs north/south on both Intel and AMD dual/quad core procs. General logic says to me that more surface contact of the copper over the actual cores should make quite a difference. One user review at NewEgg on the Kingwin branded version of the 1264 is really telling. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835124020 I suspect the orientation, particularly in an upright tower case will significantly improve performance over a horizontal hsf/mobo since heat does rise and those direct touch heat pipes going in the correct direction should make heat dispersal easier.

Any comments appreciated as I'm ready to pull the trigger on one of these.

I hope we get sometimes Topdown showdown:

Thermalright SI-128 SE vs. Scythe Andy vs. XIGMATEK HDT-D1284 ( or some its clone like Nexus or Kingwin ) vs. Noctua's NH-C12P.

How would you do that, since no heatsink on the market offers a 6 and 8mm version, theres no direct way of comparing them.

The Xigmatek 1264 has 6mm while the 1284 has 8mm.
If you look at the pics at NewEgg, the copper covers much more of the base on the 1284.

mixter is absolutely right, the 1284 has much larger pipes.

In fact that is the reason I came looking for the forum: I wanted to see if they realized that they were actually given an HDT-1264 for review not the HDT-1284 as the article states. Even the box pictured is the one for the 1264. (The 1284 box has a picture of the heatsink laying on its side rather than standing up.)

If you look at the photos on Newegg, or even at Xigmatek's site, you can clearly see that they were not looking at the 1284. The pipes are way too small, with too large of gaps between them in the base... Just thought you all should know

(The Kingwin mixter linked to above has even more pictures showing the 6mm heatpipes)


I also wonder about the orientation. More reviews need to take this into consideration with modern heatpipe heatsinks.

Ebkirk --

Congratulations, you've picked up an error that some 50,000 previous readers missed!

The text has been corrected. It is now correctly referred to as the 1264.

Hi,

I am beginner to heatsinks, so I have a problem to determine the dimension of them.
Is mention is
145(W) x 150(H) x 134(D) mm

What Height means, is from the base to the fan or that is the deep? Or that is the Deep?

Is confusing because most of the time, when case is mention, usually it refers to a tower case so the position of the heat sink changes comparing to a desktop case.

I want to know if the heat sink will fit in a Lian Li C32B?

Regarding the Xigmatek HDT-D1284, what are the options for securing it other than with the pushpins?

Is this Xigmatek adapter designed for it? http://www.xigmatek.com/product.php?pro ... pplication

I asked a supplier if they could stock it but they've replied that they won't as Socket 775 is rather old, but perhaps they've misunderstood the purpose of the adapter.

Are there other, easier to obtain (or cheaper), adapters that are suitable?

As is fairly clearly stated, that adapter is for bolting down to AMD boards.

This is the bolt down adapter for LGA775/1156/1366 sockets: http://www.xigmatek.com/product.php?productid=93

They should be easily available.

Sorry, I didn't state but I actually want something for securing it to an AMD board.

Then the adapter you linked to is appropriate. AMD boards do not use pushpins however. The heatsink comes with hardware to fix it to the standard AMD bracket.

Oh dear. It seems to have totally gone over my head that the testing was done on an Intel board!

Now I have another question however. What is the point/benefit of the adapter over the hardware supplied with the heatsink?