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Xigmatek BattleAxe VGA Cooler

Posted by NickS | Published in Cooling | [-no comments-]

Xigmatek is a relatively new company in the computer enthusiast world. Founded in 2005, they set out to offer the best in computer cooling products. With leading innovations like their one of a kind H.D.T technology, they’re well on their way to producing the markets top air coolers. Before I get started with reviewing their BattleAxe VGA cooler, I’d like to thank the folks at Xigmatek for providing Overclockers Pulse with this wonderful review sample.

Let’s take a look at the specifications of this bad boy, shall we?

The specifications of the BattleAxe are impressive to say the least. Featuring their HDT technology as well as dual 92mm fans pushing 40CFM each, this thing looks awesome. It also has a low thermal resistance of 0.20ºC/W. You’ll notice the weight of this cooler is pretty low as well. This is definitely a good thing. A heavy cooler will weigh down on your video card and potentially warp the PCB. The Xigmatek BattleAxe fits all high end cards, including the nVIDIA 8800 series cards.

The Xigmatek package is a very visually appealing one to say the least. The BattleAxe’s box art is some of the nicest I’ve ever seen, actually. It’s not tacky, nor is it overdone with colors or anime characters.

On the left side theres the compatibility information for the BattleAxe.

The back of the box contains all specifications, as well as a nice see-through part where the base of the BattleAxe is shown.

The first thing I said (out loud) was WOW when I took the BattleAxe out of the box. It looks simply awesome. Awesome doesn’t even describe it fully. It is the nicest looking VGA cooler I’ve ever seen. The sheer size of it is enough to intimidate the most experienced PC builder.

The included accessories are also very plentiful. They include mounting hardware, an extra set of rubber dampers for securing the fans to the heatsink, tons of ramsinks, an NVIO heatsink for 8800GTS 320/640 cards as well as 8800GTX’s, and a 2-to-1 Y shaped fan adapter.

The BattleAxe is stunning. It’s very clean and professional looking. It could be a stock cooling solution, it looks so clean.

Again, there are no crazy colors or logos on any of Xigmatek’s products it seems. Just sleek, subtle logos. Their products, look wise, are a class above the rest. I have a feeling the trend will continue on into the performance of the BattleAxe as well.

The BattleAxe isn’t that thick either. You can also see how there are small fins directly on top of the base for extra cooling as well.

Here is the base of the BattleAxe. This is what H.D.T (heat-pipe direct touch) technology is. The heatpipes are actually molded into the base, for amazingly rapid dissipation of heat from the source, being your video card core. Xigmatek is the only manufacturer on the market to feature H.D.T.

The included ramsinks are a little on the thin side, and could be better. They have to be relatively small though, as the BattleAxe sits nice and low on the card itself. You’ll also notice that Xigmatek has gone ahead and included an NVIO heatsink for you, so you don’t need to screw around with cooling the NVIO chip on certain 8800 series cards. I’d also like to mention something important that most readers will be pleased to know: these ramsinks stick, and well. Most ramsinks don’t stick at all, but these mount very securely.

Mounting the BattleAxe was extremely easy. The supplied instruction manual, while a tad hard to read, was very descriptive and easy to follow. One thing I do wish Xigmatek would’ve included with the BattleAxe was a backplate for the video card. Mounting this big thing without a backplate could lead to PCB warp. While this is almost never harmful to the card itself, a backplate often helps with evening out pressure on the core itself.

Yes. That is the BattleAxe mounted. Wheres the video card you say? Oh, my 8800GTS 640 is under it… somewhere. Surprisingly though, it fit in my case just fine. It only took up 3 slots total, including the one the card was occupying, and it was still a far way away from my sound card. Upon firing the PC up, I did notice how loud the cooler was. I have seven 120MM fans in my case. While they are all relatively low speed (they push ~50CFM), they still generate a good amount of noise. I could clearly hear the BattleAxe over it. Xigmatek should probably include a small resistor like Zalman does, to slow the fans down a bit for users who want silence over performance.

Here is a small, short video on the Xigmatek. It will give you a good idea of how loud it is, as well as a closer look on the design of it. Link

I tested the BattleAxe on my eVGA 8800GTS 640MB video card. It is overclocked to 648MHz core, 1566MHz shader and 972MHz RAM. The RAM is vModded. I compared the BattleAxe to my watercooling system. I have an independent VGA loop, consisting of a BIX 2 radiator, D-Tek Fuzion GFX block & a Swiftech MCP-655-B pump. While this may seem unfair, I think it’s fair. We all know the Xigmatek would beat stock cooling by a huge margin, so I think it’d be more interesting to see how this air cooler does when stacked up against a real watercooling setup.

To generate a load, I ran a program called RTHDRIBL v1.2. I ran this program for ten minutes, at 1680×960 with 16x mutlisampling. I used RivaTuner 2.06 to read the temperatures after I had completed the test. Room temperature was taken into account when calculating ΔT (delta temperature). ΔT is the difference between two measured temperatures. In this case, it is measured room temperature vs. measured card temperature. I chose to use the ΔT between the two because it is far more accurate than measuring the temperatures of the card with each cooling solution without factoring in the fluctuations in ambient temperature that may occur.

The Xigmatek does very well against the watercooling, considering it is a fraction of the cost and it is air cooling vs. watercooling. I can also say that when comparing it to the stock cooler, the Xigmatek would blow it out of the water! The Xigmatek also held the same overclock I had on water as well. This is very impressive to say the least. This cooler can be had for $44.95 + Shipping on Newegg.com, as well as many other sites. When comparing it with heatsinks from other manufacturers that usually don’t include fans, this is an amazing deal.

Comments/Suggestions
While this cooler exceeded all of my expectations, I’d like to suggest a few things to Xigmatek. First off, the mounting system is very secure indeed but the need for a backplate is apparent and would be appreciated. This should be included with every high end cooler on the market, but unfortunately a lot of manufacturers don’t. Another thing I’d like to suggest is the inclusion of either a small fan controlling device or a resistor to slow down the fans for users who appreciate silence over huge overclocks. This would make the cooler appealing to a much broader spectrum of computer enthusiasts.

Pros: