Xigmatek HDT-S1283 CPU Cooler

A great cooler thats also a great value

Strengths: Excellent Cooling ablility. Fairly quiet fan. Rubber fan mounts for noise. Heatpipes make direct contact with cpu.

Weakness: Push pin cpu mounting. Should have used screws and backplate to mount on motherboard. Very Tall. Base not perfectly flat. Has small groves from the heatpipes.

Keeps my Q6600 cool at 34C at idle and 46C at load. I recommend removing the motherboard to install the heatsink. Also place a little lubricant on the rubber fan mounts to make them easier to install. Place a thin line of thermal paste on each of the heatpipes. Xigmatek has a bolt thru kit on their website but I can't find it for sale online. You can use the Thermalright bolt thru kit instead....
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Keeps my Q6600 cool at 34C at idle and 46C at load. I recommend removing the motherboard to install the heatsink. Also place a little lubricant on the rubber fan mounts to make them easier to install. Place a thin line of thermal paste on each of the heatpipes. Xigmatek has a bolt thru kit on their website but I can't find it for sale online. You can use the Thermalright bolt thru kit instead. Overall a terrific quite cooler.

By Thundro - May 8, 2008

Great Heatsink

Strengths: Excellent cooling, quiet fan

Weakness: Not their fault, but those stupid push-lock mounts (Argh!) Plus this thing is HUGE

I have been using this cooler for about two weeks now. Ambient temp in the room is about 73F', and with a Q6600 pushed to 3Ghz, it keeps it around 115F'. The heatsink and fin assembly is HUGE, so be aware that you need about 6.25 inches above the processor to mount it. In addition, in my setup, I have a mid tower, so the heat pipe assembly is oriented horizontally. It is not performing as it...
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I have been using this cooler for about two weeks now. Ambient temp in the room is about 73F', and with a Q6600 pushed to 3Ghz, it keeps it around 115F'. The heatsink and fin assembly is HUGE, so be aware that you need about 6.25 inches above the processor to mount it. In addition, in my setup, I have a mid tower, so the heat pipe assembly is oriented horizontally. It is not performing as it should. I would imagine that if the pipes were vertical rather than horizontal, that it would cool even better. I certainly will get one of these for another machine I am building.

The only drawback is those irritating @$%#&! push pin locks that mount the assembly to the motherboard. They apply so much pressure that the mb bows some. I also about broke my thumbs trying to get the last pin to lock. If you have not wrestled with these before, do a dry run in your hands to see how they work before trying to mount them to the board. Another heatsink I have uses a backplate with spring loaded screws. WAY better. Too bad these guys did not go with that kind of mount.

Oh yeah, also using Arctic Silver grease.

By Spike; - Apr 13, 2008

Great cooler, great price

Strengths: Price, Cooling, Weight

Weakness: Quality

This is a very good heatsink for its price. It is on the upper echelon of air coolers, regardless of its budget price. The quality leaves much to be desired, but as long as you're careful, this cooler can do the job. If you are looking to overclock a Core 2 Quad, get this cooler if you can find it for a low price. Recommended.

By Techiec - Sep 28, 2008

Better than Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme

Strengths: I am running a E6850 3.8Ghz with vcore 1.45 V and temperature doesn't go above 65 degrees C.

Weakness: The fan noise can go up. It doesn't fit in the Thermaltake Armor case.

I own Thermaltake V1, CoolerMaster GeminII and ZALMAN CNPS9700 and this is definitely the best cooler I have used.

My rig: CPU:E6850 3.8Ghz/MOBO: P5Q Dlx/ 4x1OCZ Reaper HPC1180/GPU: 9800 gx2/HDD:WD Raptor X/PSU:Antec Quattro 850/Case:Thermaltake Armor

By dasc - Sep 3, 2008

Best air cooler ever used

Strengths: effective and quiet.

Weakness: installation of the rubber screw made me sweat. Can be cheaper.

I use this cooler to replace the stock one on my new G0 Q6600. I overclocked to 3.2Ghz and it works well. The full load temps dropped about ~15 degrees(C).

By zhuzanhua - Aug 15, 2008