CPU Cooling by stefan @ 2010-12-08
The Aegir CPU cooler from Xigmatek sports a heatpipe cooling system named D.L.H.D.T. (Double Layer with Heat Pipe Direct Touch) first seen in their CPU cooler dubbed "Thor's Hammer"; the new Aegir is ships with one PWM LED fan which can easily be controlled by the motherboard.
At first I would like to thank CaseKing.de for offering me a sample of the XIGMATEK Aegir CPU cooler for review.
"Purpose and targets of becoming one of the worlds leaders in thermal PC Industry were set for Xigmatek Co. Ltd in 2005, the founding year! To ensure reaching this project aims, Xigmateks management followed up with hard work, experiences and customer friendly business style.
Honing one of the world's most efficient manufacturing operations, Integration Presence in major economic regions, being tied up with most important strategic alliances between suppliers and academia and further majority investments in R&D are some of Xigmateks aggressive incensement strategies.
Combining the cream of product designers, R&D engineers and technical people (main team in Germany) Xigmatek is proud and full of confidence to offer excellent quality products and service to cover the customers requirements and demands.
Within the standard channels as the consumer market and the distributing electrical appliances, Xigmatek will keep on focusing on development and set up even new sales channels to comply ever-changing demands and requirements.
Several years of experiences company background in Thermal IT industry provides our customer the best, reliable, environmental and performing Thermal/Cooling Systems including excellent Service to fulfill global users and customers demands."
The Aegir SD128264 from Xigmatek is a CPU cooler that supports most of the newest sockets and is shipped inside a medium sized cardboard box; the front of the package shows us a photo of the actual product, but here we can also see the Xigmatek logo, the description of the new heatpipe technology this CPU cooler incorporates, but also a little window through which we can see how the heatpipes are positioned:
On one of the laterals, we can see even a bigger photo of the product, along with some features, written in 4 different languages:
The back of the box holds the same artwork as the front, a warrior holding a weapon; the name Aegir can be found in the Norse Mythology and it is described as being the God of the Sea which is worshiped and feared by sailors. On the same side we can find some other photos of the product along with the full list of technical specifications:
Inside the cardboard box we can find the User's Manual, some words regarding warranty and the cooler along with its accessories held in another plastic compartment:
The User's Manual shows us the bundle that comes with the cooler and how to perform the installation, step by step:
When opening the plastic compartment, here is what we can find:
- a little cardboard box with the rest of the accessories
- the 120mm fan
- the heatsink
- the universal back plate
The contents inside the cardboard box are the following:
- anti-vibration rubber
- the thermal compound tube
- 6 hex nuts
- 4 screws
- 4 knurled threaded nuts
- 4 washers
- an Allen key
- mounting clips
- the aluminium crossbar
The back plate features a central cushion that must be removed in order to mount it on LGA 1156,1366 motherboards; for LGA775 it must remain attached:
On the other side of the back plate, we can see more clearly the holes of the universal back plate:
When looked from one of the sides, the heatsink looks similar with other products launched in the past:
The new technology this heatsink incorporates is named D.L.H.D.T. (Double Layer with Heat-pipe Direct Touch); it does feature 2*Φ8mm and 2*Φ6mm heatpipes on the base, along with 2*Φ6mm heatpipes on the 2nd layer:
When we look from one side, we can see the places where the fan anti-vibration rubber fixing mechanism go:
On the top of the heatsink, we can see the heatpipe terminations, along with the Xigmatek logo in the center:
The fan that comes with the cooler also has the Xigmatek logo in the center:
On its back, we can see the full model code name and its rating: DC 12V, 0.31A:
In each corner, we can see LEDs introduced in the frame of the fan, which have a variable light intensity, depending on the speed the fan runs at:
The fan is PWM and this means that it can be fully controlled by the motherboard:
The first step would be to mount the back plate on the motherboard and to pass the included screws through the holes of the plate and motherboard:
After that, we can turn the motherboard on the other side, to slip the insulation washers over the screws:
The next step is to fasten the Knurled threaded nuts to the screws:
Depending on what type of motherboard we have we can choose to install the suitable mounting plates; the hex nuts must be fastened to the screws, then we have to use the Allen key to fasten them until the clips are fully secured:
Next, we have to remove the protective film from the heatsink plate, put some thermal compound on the CPU HSF and install the heatsink on the CPU; the aluminium crossbar must be used to fix properly the heatsink onto the CPU. The pillars on the back side of the aluminium crossbar must be aimed to the holes of the heatsinks' aluminium base:
The final step to fix the heatsink is to take the remaining hex-nuts and fix them onto the screws with the help of the Allen key:
To fix the fan onto the heatsink, we have to take the included anti-vibration rubbers and mount them first onto the fan; then, we have to insert the top and bottom anti-vibration rubbers onto the heatsink (the manufacturer recommends us to use the 3rd fin piece for the mount):
The testbench was composed from the following hardware:
CPU: Intel I5 Retail @ 3.2GHz & 4.0GHz
Motherboard: ASUS P7P55D-EVO Preliminary
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws F3-12800CL8D-4GBRM
Video: ATI RADEON 4890 1GB with ThermalRight Custom Cooling
Power Supply: Cooler Master Real Power Pro 850W non-modular
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 320GB 7200.10
Case: Cooler Master ATCS 840
The testing procedure was the following:
- the system was left in IDLE for 30 minutes after the system booted up
- OCCT 3.1.0 was started with the following settings:
CPU:OCCT
Test Type: Custom -> 30 minutes
Test Mode: Small Data Set
Priority: Normal
after the test was complete, the system was left again alone for 30 minutes, for the temperatures to stabilize.
All the tests were performed inside a closed case, the Cooler Master ATCS 840 with all stock fans installed.
For the second half of the tests, I have set the fan to be controlled by the motherboard. ASUS motherboards have an option to control with Q-Fan and the setting that has been chosen was "Turbo". Here are the fan speeds that were recorded with the motherboard on this mode:
Considering that the fan had speeds between 1300 and 2000RPM, some noise tests were done, with the cooler outside the test system, but connected to a fan controller that has the option to show on its display the current fan speed and voltage (Lamptron Touch). The recorded ambient noise(fan off) was 33dBA. The sound meter was placed 10cm away from the cooler.
Even if the Aegir came with only one fan, it cooled with ease the CPU and the resulting temperatures put it at about the same level as the Noctua NH-U12P SE2, which, as we know, comes with two fans, for a push-pull configuration. However, it was still a respectable difference between it and the NH-D14 monster.
If the fan is kept at full speed at all times, we can lower the IDLE temperature even more, but this with a lot of added noise. Of course, when we are leaving the motherboard to control the fan by itself, we can have different IDLE and Full Load fan speeds, depending on the motherboard model and BIOS settings.
The installation can be done by most of us, by following the written instructions inside the manual, but we have to use most of the time the supplied tool, which is time consuming.
Attaching the fan to the heatsink can be done with ease with the included anti-vibration rubbers and we can find extra in the package to mount one more fan, for a push-pull configuration; it would have been nicer to see the cooler ship with two fans instead of one, for increased cooling performance, but this would have upped the price even more.
The product can be found at CaseKing.de for about 49,90 Euros, which is an acceptable price considering that the Noctua NH-U12P SE2 can be found for about 10 Euros more. The second fan can be bought for about 7,90 Euros, which still makes it cheaper than the Noctua CPU cooler.
I would like to thank again to CaseKing.de for offering me this product for review!