Xigmatek Thor’s Hammer
Xigmatek coolers are popular for good reasons, which include quality appearance, good cooling capacity, and moderate price, but the company is taking its time updating the installation kit of several products to support Intel’s LGA 1156 interface. The firm had to add its Crossbow multi-platform LGA installation kit in order to qualify any of its super-sized coolers for today’s review.
Targeted at the enthusiast market, the Thor’s Hammer heat sink is intended to be used with the enthusiasts’ choice of favorite fans. Adding two of its Crystal-branded blue-LED clear fans to the package brings the total cost of this combination to $91, including the $65 sink and $8 Crossbow mounting kit. The Crossbow LGA 775, 1156, and 1366 bracket set is expected to replace the included LGA 775 and 1366 brackets in future packages. LGA 1156 users who want to save a little money will thus need to pay close attention to the product description listed by their favorite seller to determine when the package has been updated.
Direct-contact heat pipes highlight several elements of Thor’s Hammer production, including its black-nickel finish and relatively wide crevices between the pipes and base. Although the base and pipes are extremely flat, extra paste is required to fill the gaps for optimal contact area.
The Crossbow installation kit’s socket support plate attaches to the back of the motherboard via pre-applied self-adhesive film, while spring-loaded screws hold the cooler against the CPU via the support plate’s threaded holes. Because the cooler body prevents screwdriver access from above, Xigmatek includes a small wrench that can be used to tighten or loosen the screws from under the sink’s fins. Although removal and reinstallation are theoretically possible from inside some cases, this extremely tedious task is significantly eased by installing the cooler with both fans removed outside of any case.
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Not a single top down cooler?? That is disappointing, though I can already see the excuse: "they don't have as much performance as the tower coolers".
Argh - unbelievable! I literally just purchased my build on newegg, and they just posted this article. I bought the Arctic Cooling 7 over the Hyper 212+, not having seen the article yet.
Hey Tom's - what temps are you getting at 3.2 GHz with the Arctic Cooling 7? Did you use arctic silver 5?
Test settings page reads: CPU Intel Core i7-860, but CPU-Z screen shot under it reads Intel Core i7-870. Which one is it that you tested Tom?
Is there an article testing thermal compounds?
Argh - unbelievable! I literally just purchased my build on newegg, and they just posted this article. I bought the Arctic Cooling 7 over the Hyper 212+, not having seen the article yet. Hey Tom's - what temps are you getting at 3.2 GHz with the Arctic Cooling 7? Did you use arctic silver 5?
no worries there you will be fine
i had the 212 and sunbermtech both were running really good and cool. but i would buy the sunbeamtech with the easy exchange fan kit.
I just love to read toms old school articles like this one
What no Coolermaster V10 or Thermaltake SpinQ Vertical?
Not a single top down cooler?? That is disappointing, though I can already see the excuse: "they don't have as much performance as the tower coolers".
What no Coolermaster V10 or Thermaltake SpinQ Vertical?
You would have to ask the manufacturers, since they picked the coolers.
prolimatech megahalems
If NH-D14 is in this, where's Prolimatech's Megahalems and Thermalright's Venomous X?
just bought a freezer pro too
If NH-D14 is in this, where's Prolimatech's Megahalems and Thermalright's Venomous X?
Thermalright sent the MUX-120.
Why no Megahalems? They're widely considered the best air coolers out there right now.
Even though the Zalman CNPS10X didn't win any of the tests, I still prefer its design because of the all copper contact between the CPU and the heatsink. Nice to see some of these tests again...can you also do one to compare the effectiveness of different thermal compounds?
Why no Megahalems? They're widely considered the best air coolers out there right now.
Some companies didn't respond to the invitation. Sorry, I didn't keep a list.
Quick question..these temps you are showing they are all with an ambient temperature of 11C? So when you say 82C over ambient the temps are actually 82+11=93C?
the best cpu cooler is now the thermalright vemonous I believe
Interesting article. I knew results would vary from other reviews. That's normal.
I was surprised the new Thermalright Venoumous X was not included. It's an updated version of the Ultra 120 Extreme specifically designed for the new Intel Core i5/i7 cpu's.
Didn't THG mention in an older article that those extra tall heatspreaders that sort of look like a comb did not provide any additional cooling over stock heatspreaders?