Xigmatek Gaia SD1283

Zitat: First thing first, you cannot talk about the Xigmatek SD1283 Dark Knight Night Hawk without talking about the ceramic coating. I can’t say that the cooler performed as well as it done because of it but it did performed pretty darn well. In our test we had seen it outperform the large Reeven Kelveros which we reviewed not too long ago. The coating gave the cooler a look that is quite different from anything we have seen. I mean different in a way. It blended in well with the rest of the system which consist of a black based motherboard and black shrouded graphic cards. The fan that comes with the cooler did its job in helping the cooler perform. It was pretty quiet while we had it connected using the PWM function. When the system was rebooted with the PWM feature disenable the fan wake up. It was not terribly loud but it did compete with the fan of the ASUS GTX 560 we used on the bed. While the cooler did well in our testing with its single fan, Xigmatek does include the mounting hardware to add another fan. Setting it up in a push-pull configuration should reduce temps atleast another 2-3 degrees. Mounting was a breeze so we could not hold that against. Well, it was a breeze when it came to installing it on an Intel socket 2011 motherboard. We had it up and running in the matter of minutes. The SD1283 Dark Knight Night Hawk will cost you about $49 on the web making it a better than decent investment. And we found it ideal for someone planning on overclocking low moderate levels.  

Zitat: Pros: + Performs excellently on both stock and overclocked systems + Very good value for money + The one of the easiest coolers I have ever installed Cons: - Low quality thermal paste - Cheap feel - XSReviews.co.uk awards the Xigmatek Gaia 8/10 stars The Gaia is an excellent performing heatsink overall, almost keeping up with the Coolermaster Hyper 412S. Give the Gaia some higher quality thermal paste and it should easily be on par or beat the 412S. The build quality is good, everything is well made and well thought out but there’s something that makes the product just seem a little cheap, it’s things like the fan cable and other minor cosmetic things that could be improved to be on the same level as other similar coolers. The fact is that the Xigmatek Gaia retails at only £19.99 is amazing, for the performance you get, it is excellent. In fact I would go as far as to say it’s the best performing heatsink you can buy for the money.

Zitat: The Xigmatek Gaia SD1283 offers an exceptional low-cost performance cooling solution that would make a great replacement for someone looking to upgrade from the stock cooler. The noise level difference alone would be more than enough to welcome the upgrade as it is considerable. However, most people would be after the Gaia for its thermal performance, and rightfully so. We would not dare to test the stock Intel cooler on our overclocker Sandy Bridge processor but with the Xigmatek we had no worries. The Gaia managed to outperformed the similarly priced Zalman CNPS5X that we just tested by a healthy margin.  

Zitat: Pro: + Good performance cooling + Quiet noise-levels + Wide socket support Contra: - Fiddly mounting system

Zitat: Must Have Award Pluspunten: + Stil + smal + dual-fan-opstelling + prijs + makkelijke installatie van de koeler. Minpunten: - Aanbrengen van de ventilator gaat moeizaam. De Gaia is een koeler die in zijn prijsklasse goed presteert en tegelijkertijd ook nog eens erg stil is. De installatie is vrij makkelijk en verloopt zonder problemen, tot het punt waarbij de ventilator moet worden aangebracht. Ook is de koeler vrij smal ontworpen waardoor deze in de meeste systemen wel zal passen. Ook bied Xigmatek de mogelijkheid nog een extra ventilator te installeren zodat de prestaties nog beter worden. Op het eind blijft het wel gewoon een Balder zonder nikkel-behandeling. Iets wat we Xigmatek vergeven omdat die daardoor wel even 10 euro goedkoper is geworden, de Gaia kost ongeveer 25 euro. Voor dat geld krijg je echt een hele goede koeler, en daarom krijgt de Gaia dan ook de Techzine Must-Have Award!