tankguys

Testing Background

So I've had this Xigmatek HDT-S963 sitting at my desk for almost two months, and hadn't had a chance to test it out yet. It's a direct heat pipe contact design, and is slightly cheaper than the Ultra-120's. Xigmatek approached us to start carrying their products, but before I do, I wanted to test it out and see if it's up to the standards of the typical enthusiast

Though we are insanely busy with the Q6600 circus right now, I figured I might as well put this through its paces in the background, it's a nice way to take a short break from time to time - with that in mind, this will be a slow progressing review!

What I'll test

I intend to test this cooler against some of our favorite Thermalright products, namely, the SI-128 SE, Ultra-120, Ultra 120 Extreme, and the IFX-14. If time and ambition permit, I'll test some lapped vs. unlapped results as well.

Test Methodology

This is going to be fairly basic testing. I'll be doing the test at night/weekends from my desk at home, where our nice new geothermal heating/cooling system keeps our house a consistent 72 year round, with our home office having its own dedicated "circuit" in the loop - ensuring our ambient temps will stay steady.

I'll test all the coolers on idle, and at full load, with the system at stock settings. I will then OC the system as much as possible (though the horribly poor RAM will keep that OC quite low, I don't feel like expensing any good stuff right now ) and test at idle/load once again. I will use the same fans for each test, with the exception of the Xigmatek cooler, which comes with it's own fan.

The Test Rig

The test machine itself will be:

Core 2 Duo E6320
DFI LanParty nf680i LT SLI-TR2
1 Gb DDR2 Generic Ram
Nvidia GeForce 7000 series video card
OCZ 520w Power Stream PSU




(My dog loves to overclock)


the OS is installing on the test machine as I post this, but I doubt I'll get any testing done tonight. Hopefully I'll get some done this week, assuming the Q6600's don't consume every waking moment!

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tankguys

Cooler Pics


Cooler Overview

On the surface, this looks like your basic upright heatpipe cooler design, though visibly smaller than some of the premier coolers out there. Its primary design feature, however, are the direct touch heat pipes, as seen in the 3rd picture. In theory, this allows better heat transfer between the CPU and the heatsink itself, since there is no base material between the CPU and the heatpipes.

The bottom of the heatsink is machined down to flatten the base, though you can still feel the ridgest between the base and the heatpipes. It is, however, flat enough that all 3 heatpipes seem to make good contact with the CPU.

This particular cooler comes with it's own fan, and is prices in the $45-50 range, making it quite competitive with the Thermalright Ultra-120, especially considering it comes with the fan.


Testing Results

STOCK SETTINGS - Idle

Stock Settings (1.86Ghz) Idle - 35c

STOCK SETTINGS - Load

Stock Settings, 1.35v (1.86Ghz) Load (Orthos @ 10 min) - 52c


50% Overclock - Idle

Overclocked (333 FSB), 1.35v (2.8Ghz) Idle - 36c



50% Overclock - Load

Overclocked (333 FSB), 1.35v (2.8Ghz) Load (Orthos @ 10min) - 58c

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Owner - TankGuys Computer Parts

Questions about our store, or product questions should be posted in our sub-forum: http://www.overclock.net/tankguys/

Thanks!

tankguys

Cooler Pics - Ultra 120





Cooler Overview

This cooler is standard upright heatpipe cooler offered by Thermalright. It uses 4 heatpipes, and the base/pipes are all nickel plated.

The bottom of the base is not machined down to perfect flatness, and there are small ridges present along the surface.

None of these coolers from Thermalright come with a fan, so all testing was done with an Antec Tri-cool 120mm fan. Priced in the $45 range, plus the price of the fan, this puts the price slightly higher than that of the Xigmatek cooler.


Testing Results - Ultra 120

STOCK SETTINGS - Idle

Stock Settings, 1.35v (1.86Ghz) Idle - 34c




STOCK SETTINGS - Load

Stock Settings, 1.35v (1.86Ghz) Load (Orthos @ 10 min) - 47c




50% Overclock - Idle

Overclocked (333 FSB), 1.35v (2.8Ghz) Idle - 36c



50% Overclock - Load

Overclocked (333 FSB), 1.35v (2.8Ghz) Load (Orthos @ 10min) - 55c

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Owner - TankGuys Computer Parts

Questions about our store, or product questions should be posted in our sub-forum: http://www.overclock.net/tankguys/

Thanks!

tankguys

Reserved part 3

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Owner - TankGuys Computer Parts

Questions about our store, or product questions should be posted in our sub-forum: http://www.overclock.net/tankguys/

Thanks!

Chozart

Nice Would love to see some good results!

Thanks for letting us know.

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alexisd

Want see the results.Look nice,is almost the same size of the tuniq?

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6850@4.04=http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc.php?id=222356

dannyyboii

I'm looking forward to this

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tankguys

It's a bit smaller than the Ultra-120. I'll get better pics up at some point, but here's a quick reference shot:

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Owner - TankGuys Computer Parts

Questions about our store, or product questions should be posted in our sub-forum: http://www.overclock.net/tankguys/

Thanks!

RickJS

So you're already carrying this brand or is this a test to see if you will?

highwhey

This will be very interesting, unbiased and detailed tests are always my fav.

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Tru Balla™