Xigmatek Aegir SD128264 Cooler Review

1. Introduction2. The Aegir SD128264 Cooler3. The Aegir SD128264 Cooler (installation)4. Testing Methodology and Performance Results5. Acoustic Performance6. Closing Thoughts7. View All Pages

Today we are testing the Xigamtek Aegir SD 128264 cooler against other products in various price brackets. The Aegir is expected to retail for around £40 in the UK, which puts it against the Thermaltake Frio and other high end mainstream products. While coolers such as the Noctua NH D14 are considerably more expensive, they are used to ascertain any possible benefits by parting with more money.

Idle temperatures are measured after 30 minutes resting in Windows and room temperature is maintained at 23c throughout, a comfortable real world environment for most people. We don’t believe in testing coolers on an ‘open bench’ as people at home won’t be throwing parts onto a desk for everyday use.

We measured temperatures with diodes as motherboard readings can often be considerably wrong. We are using Arctic Cooling MX4 thermal paste for all these installations.

Comparison Coolers:
Coolit Vantage
Noctua NH D14
Thermaltake Frio
Thermaltake Contac29
Coolit ECO ALC
Intel Reference Heatsink

Processor: Intel Core i7 970 CPU
Motherboard: MSI X58A-GD65
Memory: Crucial 6GB (3x2GB) Ballistix Tracer 1600mhz DDR3
Graphics Card: Evga 1GB FTW GTX460
Power Supply: Corsair AX850
Hard Drive: OCZ Agility 2
Chassis: Lian Li PC-8FIB

While running tests at reference speeds means it is hard to differentiate between cooler performance, it gives us an initial baseline reading. We now increase the clock speeds by 1.13ghz and raise core voltage by 0.20 for stability in the overclocked state.

As expected, the Noctua NH D14 with 2 fans leads the pack by almost 4c. The Vantage was outperformed very slightly by the Aegir, although it was only noticeable with our sensitive partnering equipment. The Thermaltake Frio was outperformed by a single degree when both coolers had two fans.

Return to ambient is a feature we have recently added to our reviews … we measure the time it takes for a solution to return to idle temperatures, immediately after full load. The faster the time, the better the cooler – for example a Noctua NH D14 cooler will return an Intel processor to idle temperatures much faster than a reference cooler. This is a good indication of how quickly a heatsink can dissipate heat. We load the system for a full hour and then drop to idle and record the times.

With two fans, the fins cool much quicker, helping to reduce core temperature. We recorded a return to idle state time of 14 seconds when two fans were installed. With one, it was increased to 23 seconds.

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