djbbenn
02-01-2007, 03:31 AM
[Page=Introduction & Specs]
Introduction
I would like to thank XIGMATEK (http://www.xigmatek.com/) for supplying us with this review sample.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/Xigmatek.gif (http://www.xigmatek.com)
XIGMATEK is relatively new when it comes to the cooler business and many of you may have never heard of them till this review. This is because they are mainly dealing in the OEM market at the moment, so it might not be an easy task to find a XIGMATEK cooler. However, XIGMATEK was nice enough to find us and send a sample of one of their coolers for review purposes. Hopefully soon, XIGMATEK will hit the retail market...
Features:
Inbalance arrangement of heat pipe result in perfect heat dissipation
Easy & friendly clip design
Rubber suspension used
PWM-control fan
Eight heat pipes solution
Brilliant Smart Fan: PWM + Thermal-control fan (Optional)
Specifications
<table border="1" class="resulttable" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3">
<tr>
<th scope="row">Model Name</th>
<td scope="row">XCAI-055AC9025</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Compatibility Intel</th>
<td scope="row"><p><em>Intel® LGA775 (SocketT) Processor</em> <BR>
Intel® Core™2 Extreme processor (Conroe)
Intel® Core™2 Duo processor (Conroe)
Intel® Pentium® Processor Extreme Edition
Intel® Pentium® D
Intel® Pentium® 4
Intel® Celeron® D</p>
<p><em>Intel® S478 Processor</em> <BR>
Intel® Pentium® Processor Extreme Edition
Intel® Pentium® 4
Intel® Pentium® Celeron</p>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Compatibility AMD</th>
<td scope="row"><p id="text2"><em>AMD Socket940 Processor </em><BR>
Dual-Core AMD Opteron™ Processor,
AMD Opteron™ Processor,
AMD Athlon™ 64 FX Processor</p>
<p><em>AMD Socket939 Processor</em><BR>
Dual-Core AMD Opteron™ Processor
AMD Opteron™ Processor
AMD Athlon™ 64 Processor
AMD Athlon™ 64 FX Processor
AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core </p>
<p><em>AMD Socket754 Processor</em><br>
AMD Athlon™ 64 Proessor
AMD Sempron™ Processor</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Fan Dimensions</th>
<td scope="row">92 x 92 x 25mm</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Cooler Dimensions</th>
<td scope="row"> 100(L) x 60(W) x 133(H) mm</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Fan Speed</th>
<td scope="row">2000 ~ 2500rpm (±10%)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Fan Noise Level</th>
<td scope="row">28 ~ 35dBA</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Air Flow</th>
<td scope="row">36 ~ 48.1CFM</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Weight</th>
<td scope="row">650g</td>
</tr>
</table>
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/contents_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/contents.jpg)
Contents
055 Cooler/Fan
S940/S939/S754 Bracket
SocketT (775)/S478 Bracket
Mounting Screws
Thermal Paste
When I received the cooler, it wasn't out for end-users yet. I didn't received an instruction booklet, nor did it come in a nice fancy box. The cooler was literally made before it was sent out to me and was one of the first units to be made. One thing I noticed right away with this however, was that there was no protective film on the base of the cooler. Well, without one, the base got a little scratched up - more so than I would like to accept. I spoke to the nice people at Xigimatek, and apparently, their engineers tested the cooler before sending it out and "forgot" to to put the film back on for shipping. So either the cooler was scratched during packing/shipping, or they were rough with it during their testing.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/base3_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/base3.jpg)
Hopefully this won't affect the performance too much. The scratches are not deep, just minor ones. That out of the way, let's get to the fun stuff!
[page=The Cooler]
The Cooler
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/cooler6_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/cooler6.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/cooler5_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/cooler5.jpg)
The 055 cooler is a Copper/Aluminum cooler based on heatpipes. It sports a 92 mm fan that is capable of pushing out around 48 CFM. With a height of 133 mm and weighs in at 650 g, it's not a small heatsink. It is rated to perform up to 130 Watts of heat, and supports a broad range of applications such as Socket 754, 939, 940, 478 and 775.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/cooler1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/cooler1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/cooler2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/cooler2.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/base1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/base1.jpg)
When it comes to air coolers nowadays, heatpipes seem to be the thing to have. More and more coolers come with heatpipes as part of the cooler now. Even AMD's stock Opteron/FX heatsinks use heatpipes in them. Some coolers use heatpipes just as an extra method to transfer heat away from the CPU, whilst others, use the heatpipes as the primary way of moving the heat around. With the 055 cooler, it uses eight heatpipes (four on each side) to carry all the heat up the the physical sink of the unit.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/cooler4_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/cooler4.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/fanmount1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/fanmount1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/fanmount2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/fanmount2.jpg)
The 92 mm fan is mounted to the cooler via four rubber dampeners. These significantly reduce vibration and noise from the cooler. The fan is easily removed and replaceable. On the other side of the cooler, there are four additional mounting holes. Therefore, it is possible to mount a second fan if one pleases. Where there is no other fan on the other side, the actual plate where the extra fan could be mounted is a little loose. On the other side where the stock fan is, the bottom end of the plate is kept in place by the fan. One thing I'd like to point out in the far left picture of the cooler's top, is the ends of the heatpipes. Each of the ends are different, and are not well finished. The bottom right three are nice, but the rest just look plain messy.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/fan2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/fan2.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/fan3_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/fan3.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/fan1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/fan1.jpg)
The fan itself is made by X-FAN, which is simply part of XIGMATEK. It's pretty much your standard 92 mm fan with RPM sensors and so on. One thing different than most other fans though, is it uses a 4 pin Molex, much like an FDD Molex connector. The forth wire makes up the PWM (pulse-width modulation) power connector. This connector is only seen on new motherboards and is just a different way of controlling the fan's speed. It produces a much cleaner voltage, which in return makes the fan more efficient and quieter in operation. Don't worry if your board doesn't have one of the 4pin connectors - the fan can still use just the regular 3 pins (or even 2 pins) to run the fan.
[page=Installation]
Installation
Installation of the 055 cooler is fairly straight forward when it comes to AMD based computers. The cooler uses the cradle that comes with the motherboard, so there's no need to take the board out of the case. However, when it comes to an Intel based computer, the removal of the motherboard is a necessary evil. For mounting the cooler on an Intel based board, the cradle must be removed, and the cooler's retention clips will use the mounting holes for the cradle.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/mount1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/mount1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/mount2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/mount2.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/cooler3_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/cooler3.jpg)
Mounting the cooler on an AMD system is a simple task of using one mounting clip and lining the clip up with the grooves on the top of the cooler's base. For Intel systems, two mounts have to be attached to the cooler via two screws. Once the the cradle has been removed from the mainboard, it's just a matter of lining the cooler up, and pushing the clips into the mounting holes on the motherboard, then tightening the clips.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/cradleshot1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/cradleshot1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/cradleshot2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/cradleshot2.jpg)
I found it a little awkward to install the cooler on an AMD system. Where the clip was separate from the cooler, you had to line it up, while lining the cooler up and trying to get the clip on the cradle. With the mainboard outside of the case, it was fairly easy to accomplish, but when I was working inside of a case, it got a little more trickier.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/cradleshot3_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/cradleshot3.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/cradleshot4_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/cradleshot4.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/base2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/base2.jpg)
With the 055 cooler mounted on a 939 system, you can see it's a tight fit. The base of the cooler is like a parallelogram shape, and the heatpipes have a similar way of lining up. The forward heatpipe is almost resting on the cradle, while the rear pipe has decent clearance.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/ramclearance_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/ramclearance.jpg)
The cooler comes quite close to the RAM modules, but is fine. I also mounted the cooler on another LanParty board, and it is pretty much the same story.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/boardshot1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/boardshot1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/boardshot2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/boardshot2.jpg)
To give you a perspective of the size of the cooler, here are two shots of it mounted on a DFI RDX200 board.
[Page=Performance]
Performance
Engineers that design coolers have to be able to make a cooler that's not overly big or heavy, yet have the capability to deal with large amounts of heat. This is harder than it sounds, and many new methods have been tried. Different materials, different shapes and sizes, more powerful fans, and other technologies such as heatpipes are some of the ways to improve a cooler's performance. One thing with CPUs at least, is that they are becoming more energy efficient and cooler running - unlike GPUs.
For the test setup, Prime95 was used to load the CPU, and Windows at the Desktop was used to get the idle temperature. Different clocks/voltage were used to increase the total heat output. The amount of heat output of a processor is measured in watts. All CPUs/GPUs have what's known as a TDP or Thermal Design Point which is given by the manufacturer (different manufacturers measure TDP in different ways). This TDP rating gives a bases of how much heat is being dissipated off of a CPU when it's at its default state (not overclocked). However to get the heat output of an overclocked CPU, a formula is needed. To calculate this, the formula " TDP * (OC MHz / Stock MHz) * (OC vCore / Stock vCore )<sup>2</sup> " was used.
<table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" class="ramtable" width="450">
<tr>
<th width="100" scope="row">CPU:</th>
<td scope="row">AMD Athlon64 FX-55 (S939; 1024 KB; San Diego; 104 Watt)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Motherboard:</th>
<td scope="row">DFI LanParty RDX200 CF-DR<br />ATI RD480</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Memory:</th>
<td scope="row">2x1024MB OCZ Platinum PC3200</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Video Card:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">ATI Radeon X1900XTX</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">PSU:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">OCZ PowerStream 520ADJ</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Hard Drive:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Raptor WD360, Barracuda 7200.9</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Software:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Windows XP SP2</td>
</tr>
</table>
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/contact_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/contact.jpg)
The cooler was mounted, then removed immediately after and the contact area was inspected. The cooler was quite difficult to get off, and there was a good contact.
Now let's look at some numbers to see how this cooler stacks up.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/104.jpg http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/132.jpg
The cooler is performing quite well at these heat loads. The stock Opteron cooler is a very well made cooler, and can compete with a ThermalRight XP-90. The 055 cooler does outperform the Opteron cooler, and it is close to the Thermaltake water cooler's performance.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/158.jpg
At 158 Watts, the air coolers start to get overwhelmed with heat. On the specification sheet for the Xigmatek 055, the cooler is rated for 130 Watts max. So all in all, it's not doing too bad here.
[Page=Value & Conclusion]
Value & Conclusion
<table width="100%" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" id="result">
<tr><th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/dollar.gif</th>
<td>
The XIGMATEK 055 cooler has not hit retail shelves yet in the USA.</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbup.gif</th>
<td>
Good performance
Quiet
Replaceable fan
PWM fan
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbdown.gif</th>
<td>
Mounting clip for AMDs can be a pain during installation
Build quality not as good as it could be
</td></tr>
<tr><th>8.5</th>
<td>Xigmatek's 055 cooler is quite a nice cooler - Its performance is very good when it comes to air cooling and it is quiet in its operation. With a way to mount an additional 92mm fan, more performance is possible. One thing I did mention was its build quality, which could be better. By this I mean the ends of the heatpipes could have been dressed more, and the outer casing of the cooler's sink could have been secured better. Also when I received the cooler the base was scratched, which could have affected performance. I was assured by XIGMATEK that when this cooler hits retail and is shipping to end-users, it would be free of such defects. Other than those minor things, I was overall very pleased with the cooler.
</td></tr>
<tr><th></th><td>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/recommended.gif</td></tr>
</table>
Introduction
I would like to thank XIGMATEK (http://www.xigmatek.com/) for supplying us with this review sample.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/Xigmatek.gif (http://www.xigmatek.com)
XIGMATEK is relatively new when it comes to the cooler business and many of you may have never heard of them till this review. This is because they are mainly dealing in the OEM market at the moment, so it might not be an easy task to find a XIGMATEK cooler. However, XIGMATEK was nice enough to find us and send a sample of one of their coolers for review purposes. Hopefully soon, XIGMATEK will hit the retail market...
Features:
Inbalance arrangement of heat pipe result in perfect heat dissipation
Easy & friendly clip design
Rubber suspension used
PWM-control fan
Eight heat pipes solution
Brilliant Smart Fan: PWM + Thermal-control fan (Optional)
Specifications
<table border="1" class="resulttable" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3">
<tr>
<th scope="row">Model Name</th>
<td scope="row">XCAI-055AC9025</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Compatibility Intel</th>
<td scope="row"><p><em>Intel® LGA775 (SocketT) Processor</em> <BR>
Intel® Core™2 Extreme processor (Conroe)
Intel® Core™2 Duo processor (Conroe)
Intel® Pentium® Processor Extreme Edition
Intel® Pentium® D
Intel® Pentium® 4
Intel® Celeron® D</p>
<p><em>Intel® S478 Processor</em> <BR>
Intel® Pentium® Processor Extreme Edition
Intel® Pentium® 4
Intel® Pentium® Celeron</p>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Compatibility AMD</th>
<td scope="row"><p id="text2"><em>AMD Socket940 Processor </em><BR>
Dual-Core AMD Opteron™ Processor,
AMD Opteron™ Processor,
AMD Athlon™ 64 FX Processor</p>
<p><em>AMD Socket939 Processor</em><BR>
Dual-Core AMD Opteron™ Processor
AMD Opteron™ Processor
AMD Athlon™ 64 Processor
AMD Athlon™ 64 FX Processor
AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core </p>
<p><em>AMD Socket754 Processor</em><br>
AMD Athlon™ 64 Proessor
AMD Sempron™ Processor</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Fan Dimensions</th>
<td scope="row">92 x 92 x 25mm</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Cooler Dimensions</th>
<td scope="row"> 100(L) x 60(W) x 133(H) mm</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Fan Speed</th>
<td scope="row">2000 ~ 2500rpm (±10%)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Fan Noise Level</th>
<td scope="row">28 ~ 35dBA</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Air Flow</th>
<td scope="row">36 ~ 48.1CFM</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Weight</th>
<td scope="row">650g</td>
</tr>
</table>
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/contents_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/contents.jpg)
Contents
055 Cooler/Fan
S940/S939/S754 Bracket
SocketT (775)/S478 Bracket
Mounting Screws
Thermal Paste
When I received the cooler, it wasn't out for end-users yet. I didn't received an instruction booklet, nor did it come in a nice fancy box. The cooler was literally made before it was sent out to me and was one of the first units to be made. One thing I noticed right away with this however, was that there was no protective film on the base of the cooler. Well, without one, the base got a little scratched up - more so than I would like to accept. I spoke to the nice people at Xigimatek, and apparently, their engineers tested the cooler before sending it out and "forgot" to to put the film back on for shipping. So either the cooler was scratched during packing/shipping, or they were rough with it during their testing.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/base3_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/base3.jpg)
Hopefully this won't affect the performance too much. The scratches are not deep, just minor ones. That out of the way, let's get to the fun stuff!
[page=The Cooler]
The Cooler
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/cooler6_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/cooler6.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/cooler5_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/cooler5.jpg)
The 055 cooler is a Copper/Aluminum cooler based on heatpipes. It sports a 92 mm fan that is capable of pushing out around 48 CFM. With a height of 133 mm and weighs in at 650 g, it's not a small heatsink. It is rated to perform up to 130 Watts of heat, and supports a broad range of applications such as Socket 754, 939, 940, 478 and 775.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/cooler1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/cooler1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/cooler2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/cooler2.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/base1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/base1.jpg)
When it comes to air coolers nowadays, heatpipes seem to be the thing to have. More and more coolers come with heatpipes as part of the cooler now. Even AMD's stock Opteron/FX heatsinks use heatpipes in them. Some coolers use heatpipes just as an extra method to transfer heat away from the CPU, whilst others, use the heatpipes as the primary way of moving the heat around. With the 055 cooler, it uses eight heatpipes (four on each side) to carry all the heat up the the physical sink of the unit.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/cooler4_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/cooler4.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/fanmount1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/fanmount1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/fanmount2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/fanmount2.jpg)
The 92 mm fan is mounted to the cooler via four rubber dampeners. These significantly reduce vibration and noise from the cooler. The fan is easily removed and replaceable. On the other side of the cooler, there are four additional mounting holes. Therefore, it is possible to mount a second fan if one pleases. Where there is no other fan on the other side, the actual plate where the extra fan could be mounted is a little loose. On the other side where the stock fan is, the bottom end of the plate is kept in place by the fan. One thing I'd like to point out in the far left picture of the cooler's top, is the ends of the heatpipes. Each of the ends are different, and are not well finished. The bottom right three are nice, but the rest just look plain messy.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/fan2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/fan2.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/fan3_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/fan3.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/fan1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/fan1.jpg)
The fan itself is made by X-FAN, which is simply part of XIGMATEK. It's pretty much your standard 92 mm fan with RPM sensors and so on. One thing different than most other fans though, is it uses a 4 pin Molex, much like an FDD Molex connector. The forth wire makes up the PWM (pulse-width modulation) power connector. This connector is only seen on new motherboards and is just a different way of controlling the fan's speed. It produces a much cleaner voltage, which in return makes the fan more efficient and quieter in operation. Don't worry if your board doesn't have one of the 4pin connectors - the fan can still use just the regular 3 pins (or even 2 pins) to run the fan.
[page=Installation]
Installation
Installation of the 055 cooler is fairly straight forward when it comes to AMD based computers. The cooler uses the cradle that comes with the motherboard, so there's no need to take the board out of the case. However, when it comes to an Intel based computer, the removal of the motherboard is a necessary evil. For mounting the cooler on an Intel based board, the cradle must be removed, and the cooler's retention clips will use the mounting holes for the cradle.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/mount1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/mount1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/mount2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/mount2.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/cooler3_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/cooler3.jpg)
Mounting the cooler on an AMD system is a simple task of using one mounting clip and lining the clip up with the grooves on the top of the cooler's base. For Intel systems, two mounts have to be attached to the cooler via two screws. Once the the cradle has been removed from the mainboard, it's just a matter of lining the cooler up, and pushing the clips into the mounting holes on the motherboard, then tightening the clips.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/cradleshot1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/cradleshot1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/cradleshot2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/cradleshot2.jpg)
I found it a little awkward to install the cooler on an AMD system. Where the clip was separate from the cooler, you had to line it up, while lining the cooler up and trying to get the clip on the cradle. With the mainboard outside of the case, it was fairly easy to accomplish, but when I was working inside of a case, it got a little more trickier.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/cradleshot3_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/cradleshot3.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/cradleshot4_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/cradleshot4.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/base2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/base2.jpg)
With the 055 cooler mounted on a 939 system, you can see it's a tight fit. The base of the cooler is like a parallelogram shape, and the heatpipes have a similar way of lining up. The forward heatpipe is almost resting on the cradle, while the rear pipe has decent clearance.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/ramclearance_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/ramclearance.jpg)
The cooler comes quite close to the RAM modules, but is fine. I also mounted the cooler on another LanParty board, and it is pretty much the same story.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/boardshot1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/boardshot1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/boardshot2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/boardshot2.jpg)
To give you a perspective of the size of the cooler, here are two shots of it mounted on a DFI RDX200 board.
[Page=Performance]
Performance
Engineers that design coolers have to be able to make a cooler that's not overly big or heavy, yet have the capability to deal with large amounts of heat. This is harder than it sounds, and many new methods have been tried. Different materials, different shapes and sizes, more powerful fans, and other technologies such as heatpipes are some of the ways to improve a cooler's performance. One thing with CPUs at least, is that they are becoming more energy efficient and cooler running - unlike GPUs.
For the test setup, Prime95 was used to load the CPU, and Windows at the Desktop was used to get the idle temperature. Different clocks/voltage were used to increase the total heat output. The amount of heat output of a processor is measured in watts. All CPUs/GPUs have what's known as a TDP or Thermal Design Point which is given by the manufacturer (different manufacturers measure TDP in different ways). This TDP rating gives a bases of how much heat is being dissipated off of a CPU when it's at its default state (not overclocked). However to get the heat output of an overclocked CPU, a formula is needed. To calculate this, the formula " TDP * (OC MHz / Stock MHz) * (OC vCore / Stock vCore )<sup>2</sup> " was used.
<table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" class="ramtable" width="450">
<tr>
<th width="100" scope="row">CPU:</th>
<td scope="row">AMD Athlon64 FX-55 (S939; 1024 KB; San Diego; 104 Watt)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Motherboard:</th>
<td scope="row">DFI LanParty RDX200 CF-DR<br />ATI RD480</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Memory:</th>
<td scope="row">2x1024MB OCZ Platinum PC3200</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Video Card:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">ATI Radeon X1900XTX</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">PSU:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">OCZ PowerStream 520ADJ</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Hard Drive:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Raptor WD360, Barracuda 7200.9</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Software:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Windows XP SP2</td>
</tr>
</table>
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/contact_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/contact.jpg)
The cooler was mounted, then removed immediately after and the contact area was inspected. The cooler was quite difficult to get off, and there was a good contact.
Now let's look at some numbers to see how this cooler stacks up.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/104.jpg http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/132.jpg
The cooler is performing quite well at these heat loads. The stock Opteron cooler is a very well made cooler, and can compete with a ThermalRight XP-90. The 055 cooler does outperform the Opteron cooler, and it is close to the Thermaltake water cooler's performance.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Xigmatek/055Cooler/images/158.jpg
At 158 Watts, the air coolers start to get overwhelmed with heat. On the specification sheet for the Xigmatek 055, the cooler is rated for 130 Watts max. So all in all, it's not doing too bad here.
[Page=Value & Conclusion]
Value & Conclusion
<table width="100%" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" id="result">
<tr><th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/dollar.gif</th>
<td>
The XIGMATEK 055 cooler has not hit retail shelves yet in the USA.</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbup.gif</th>
<td>
Good performance
Quiet
Replaceable fan
PWM fan
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbdown.gif</th>
<td>
Mounting clip for AMDs can be a pain during installation
Build quality not as good as it could be
</td></tr>
<tr><th>8.5</th>
<td>Xigmatek's 055 cooler is quite a nice cooler - Its performance is very good when it comes to air cooling and it is quiet in its operation. With a way to mount an additional 92mm fan, more performance is possible. One thing I did mention was its build quality, which could be better. By this I mean the ends of the heatpipes could have been dressed more, and the outer casing of the cooler's sink could have been secured better. Also when I received the cooler the base was scratched, which could have affected performance. I was assured by XIGMATEK that when this cooler hits retail and is shipping to end-users, it would be free of such defects. Other than those minor things, I was overall very pleased with the cooler.
</td></tr>
<tr><th></th><td>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/recommended.gif</td></tr>
</table>