Xigmatek Battle-Axe VGA Cooler

[nflesher87]

To read this review go to: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/BattleAxe/

[KainXS]

nice review, its a powerful heatsink i gotta admit that, dosen't look bad either and cheap

[locoty]

it takes two slots

i've bought it for my 4850

very nice cooler

got 41 C when idle and 65 C when full load

[Sasqui]

Can't tell who did the review - Darksaber or nflesher87?

No mention of the fan connections to the board - does it connect to the on-board header, or PSU feed? Any control over the fan speed?

[KieranD]

would this be good for a 4870 stock

[Basard]

I helped my friend install this on his 8800gt, the tape on the RAM sinks was COMPLETELY pointless... should have just left it off, save us all some time and grief of removing it. And the heatpipes blocked the RAM sinks on his card as well. Still the cooler is crazy good--friend's 8800gt runs 55c on load.

Put some faster fans on this thing and it would be killer, but still only two of the heatpipes touch the core.

My Powercolor 3870 runs folding@home all day and never breaks 64c with a way smaller zerotherm cooler. I like the zerotherm that came with my card over this thing though. The fact that you can only get two heatpipes over the core could save xigmatek a lot of money, if they would just merget the HDT with zerotherm's design--I think that would be sweet.

^^As for this being good for a 4870 stock..... not sure dude, it would be good for any card pretty much, but it's sorta overkill for a lot of people, it's really big man... I'd check out zerotherms. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814131095 <--- this is my card dude, i'd suggest getting the zerotherm attached to this one.

[locoty]

Originally Posted by Sasqui

Can't tell who did the review - Darksaber or nflesher87?

No mention of the fan connections to the board - does it connect to the on-board header, or PSU feed? Any control over the fan speed?

it connects to the onboard header. no control over the fan speed

[AsRock]

Nice review, shame you cannot get good heatsinks on the other 2 ram chips.

[nflesher87]

Originally Posted by Sasqui

Can't tell who did the review - Darksaber or nflesher87?

No mention of the fan connections to the board - does it connect to the on-board header, or PSU feed? Any control over the fan speed?

Lol I did but then Darksaber did some editing and put his name on it
And it just comes with, as seen in the pictures, a 3pin adapter that converts the two 3 pin connectors to one which you can then either connect to the board or hook up to a fan controller of your own

Originally Posted by KieranD

would this be good for a 4870 stock

absolutely, check it out at microcenter, $2.99 AR!!!

Originally Posted by Basard

I helped my friend install this on his 8800gt, the tape on the RAM sinks was COMPLETELY pointless... should have just left it off, save us all some time and grief of removing it. And the heatpipes blocked the RAM sinks on his card as well. Still the cooler is crazy good--friend's 8800gt runs 55c on load.

Put some faster fans on this thing and it would be killer, but still only two of the heatpipes touch the core.

My Powercolor 3870 runs folding@home all day and never breaks 64c with a way smaller zerotherm cooler. I like the zerotherm that came with my card over this thing though. The fact that you can only get two heatpipes over the core could save xigmatek a lot of money, if they would just merget the HDT with zerotherm's design--I think that would be sweet.

^^As for this being good for a 4870 stock..... not sure dude, it would be good for any card pretty much, but it's sorta overkill for a lot of people, it's really big man... I'd check out zerotherms. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814131095 <--- this is my card dude, i'd suggest getting the zerotherm attached to this one.

Yes I was extremely disappointed with the ramsink thermal material as I mentioned in the review...as for this verse the zerotherms, basically if you don't want a huge honking cooler like this, go for another brand, otherwise when considering price/performance, the battle-axe really is the best vga air cooler available right now (mostly due to being $3 AR at microcenter)

[Wile E]

A bit of constructive criticism here, but wouldn't it be better to list the temp delta over ambient as opposed to the core temps, in order to account for possible differences in ambient temp?

[nflesher87]

Originally Posted by Wile E

A bit of constructive criticism here, but wouldn't it be better to list the temp delta over ambient as opposed to the core temps, in order to account for possible differences in ambient temp?

I suppose, however all temps were taken with an open case on the same day and without ambient temp fluctuation of any more than 1C

[Wile E]

Originally Posted by nflesher87

I suppose, however all temps were taken with an open case on the same day and without ambient temp fluctuation of any more than 1C

Well, I'm also thinking of it from the perspective of doing future gpu cooler reviews. That way the current measurements still hold their merit as a basis of comparison to future reviews.

[nflesher87]

Originally Posted by Wile E

Well, I'm also thinking of it from the perspective of doing future gpu cooler reviews. That way the current measurements still hold their merit as a basis of comparison to future reviews.

oh
haha point taken

[theJesus]

This cooler looks pretty good, but like most good vga coolers lately, it seems inspired by the arctic acceleros. I'd like to see this compared to the acceleros and zalman's vf1000.

That's really disappointing about the ramsinks though

[Scrizz]

Originally Posted by theJesus

This cooler looks pretty good, but like most good vga coolers lately, it seems inspired by the arctic acceleros. I'd like to see this compared to the acceleros and zalman's vf1000.

That's really disappointing about the ramsinks though

want to see if it is an upgrade from my AC S1 with 2x120mmfans

[WarEagleAU]

Perhaps you can get low height ramsinks. Otherwise, this is an awesome cooler. Its honkin huge though and the price is superb.

[Hayder_Master]

very nice review , and very cool coolers

[burtram]

so if it will fit a 9600gso, does that mean it will fit my 8800gs? since they are basically the same card (just not sure about their pcb), i'd love to keep my oc and drop the fan noise by dumping the stock cooler =P

[Tatty_One]

I got all excited then, I thought we finally might have aftermarket cooling for the GTX 200 series

[KainXS]

Originally Posted by burtram

so if it will fit a 9600gso, does that mean it will fit my 8800gs? since they are basically the same card (just not sure about their pcb), i'd love to keep my oc and drop the fan noise by dumping the stock cooler =P

if it fits an HD3870 then it will fit the XFX 8800GS, they have the same mounting holes

[FreedomEclipse]

Originally Posted by theJesus

it seems inspired by the arctic acceleros.

I have to agree - when i first saw it i reconised it as Artic Coolings new Accelero 'Twin Turbo' (which i have installed on my 8800GTS 512) Its really no different asside from a few scoops in the fins & the H.D.T mumbo jumbo.

& even then im VERY suprised that the AC Twin Turbo cooler wasnt included in the comparions since they look so alike.

something else that also doesnt quite make sense is the appearance of the HR-03GT which still performs well but is slightly dated & is no longer as readily available as it was 6 months ago. most places do not stock them anymore & if they do their probably not expecting re-stock after the remaining units have gone out

another problem with this review that id like to point out is the lack of products you compared it too - 'Stock, HR-03GT, Xigmatek' even an Artic Cooling S1 or Zerotherm's Hurricane HC92-CU 8800 included into the evaluation would have been a better choice as they are more recent products compared to the HR-03. youve left little or not much room for people to make a decision on how good this cooler really is or how much they want this product because your directly comparing it to a 6month old HR-03. in which case - if this product was actually ANY good at all then you are selling it short by comparing it to a 6month old cooler & pretty much nothing else.

(Artic Cooling 'Twin Turbo)

& its a shame the review wasnt able to test the 'loudness' of the coolers which at the same time is a very important factor in cooling.

I cant hear my AC TT cooler till i rev the fan to 70% & even then its just barely noticable above the rest of the noise my pc makes which isnt a lot at all.


Im not saying it was a pityful review - im saying the review could have been a lot lot lot more better.


======


before a mod decides to throw a ban hammer at me for this critique post - please understand that this is my $2. im not being an asshole because i want to

[wolf2009]

Whats up with the weird greenish-yellow tint on the Images ?

[Beertintedgoggles]

I can't believe no one else has made mention of this already, maybe I'm going to get slammed for doing so.... but a 0° delta between the core idle and load temps for the Xigmatek at high = BS.

[wolf2009]

Originally Posted by Beertintedgoggles

I can't believe no one else has made mention of this already, maybe I'm going to get slammed for doing so.... but a 0° delta between the core idle and load temps for the Xigmatek at high = BS.

thats why its preliminary review . thanks for pointing it out .

[mab1376]

i just bought one off http://www.directron.com/ $24.99