Conclusion

The coolers from Thermalright and Xigmatek have both done well in my today’s tests. They are sure to gain recognition among overclockers due to their very high performance and low noise level, compatibility with every modern platform and competitive pricing. The Xigmatek HDT-S1283 is a leader in terms of performance/price ratio as it costs less than the other three coolers (and you have to buy fans separately for Thermalright’s heatsinks). As for drawbacks, the mainboard bends rather unpleasantly under the Thermalright SI-128. You have to press on the locks quite heavily to install it, which is not easy to do inside a system case.

I would also like to return to the thought I expressed in the Introduction to the Cooler Master Sphere review. You can take a look at the maximum CPU frequency you can achieve with the coolers in the quiet mode and you’ll see that the difference is small. The coolers do not differ much in the performance test as well. This is another confirmation of my point that the potential of air cooling has virtually been exhausted by now. Perhaps there’ll be new super-coolers soon, but you shouldn’t expect them to be much better than the existing ones. Considering today’s abundance of high-performance air coolers, the overclocker should make his choice basing on such factors as price, noise level, availability, compatibility, and the opportunity to orient the cooler in the best possible way on the mainboard. And the two models I discussed in this review make your option of choice even broader than before.