Conclusion: Xigmatek Snags the Recommended Buy Award
The Xigmatek HDT-S1283 comes out at as the clear favorite in this roundup. It offers very good cooling performance rivaling that of our top-ranked model, the Thermalright IFX-14. As the HDT-S1283 proves, excellent cooling does not have to be expensive - less than $40 is a good bargain if you can live with a higher noise level when your CPU is running at full tilt.
Because of its excellent performance, the Xigmatek HDT-S1283 receives our “Recommended Buy” award.
The Zalman’s CNPS9700 LED was our reference model against which all of our candidates were measured. Now it has to give up its position at the top of the cooler charts and make room for Xigmatek’s HDT-S1283. Nevertheless, despite being nearly two years old, the cooler can still keep up with current offerings.