| NZXT HAVIK 140 CPU Cooler |  |
| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Cooling | ||||||||
| Written by David Ramsey | ||||||||
| Tuesday, 16 August 2011 | ||||||||
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NZXT HAVIK 140 CPU Cooler
Manufacturer: NZXT Full Disclosure: The product sample used in this article has been provided by NZXT. Ah, another day, another CPU cooler. This time it's from NZXT, a company that started out making low-priced computer cases with features and quality normally seen only on more expensive products. Then they added a line of premium sleeved cables, case fans, mice, higher-end cases like the critically acclaimed Phantom, and even power supplies. The NZXT HAVIK 140 is their first CPU cooler, and they're aiming directly at the high-end air cooling market with an MSRP of $74.99. Benchmark Reviews tests their latest offering to see if it can play with the big boys. As CPU design migrates to a 32nm process (such as Intel's new Sandy Bridge processors and AMD's forthcoming Bulldozer CPUs), power consumption and heat production go down, and the need for monster cooling systems decreases. But there are still a lot of very hot CPUs out there, such as the overclocked and overvolted Core i7-950 I use in my heat sink test machine.
Any CPU cooler's primary task is to cool the CPU. Since retail CPUs come with perfectly adequate coolers, the main reason to buy an aftermarket cooler is for conditions that the stock cooler can't handle...namely, overclocking. The Hyper 612 PWM is Cooler Master's latest entry in the field. NZXT HAVIK 140 CPU Cooler Specifications
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Comments
Since you follow the cooling market well, is there anything on the horizon from the cooler manufacturers you're aware of that I may want to hold out for? I've got some fairly ambitious plans for the next 6-9 months involving a new build/upgrade, however it best works out. The future of coolers isn't as well reported as the future of CPUs and MBs.
What setting did you use to overclock and overvolted your Core i7-950 I used in your heat sink test machine? As I have the same!!
Derek
I almost didn't read this, one, becasue I'm not on the market for a cooler, and two, I know about how these fans in this area will fall out. I wasn't surprised here, except that how poorly the NZXT fan really performed compared to its cost and its fugliness.
As far as temperature goes, it performed great, since all of the temps you recorded were very low, and so all of the coolers you tested are doing a good job of heat dissipation. So where does this leave a buyer? Looking at cost and design. This thing looks like something out of a Steam Punk photo contest at Deviant Art.
On the subject a little, I'm wondering why my 3.8Ghz clocked 920 only uses 1.264 volts under load? My last mother board was the Gigabyte UD5 Extreme rev 1 and I had to run the core voltage w here you have yours, maybe even 1.38 if, I remember correctly. With the new Extreme UD 5 rev2, I'm only using 1.264v and just as stable. That equates to about a 10C drop in heat for me too. Why do you think that is?
Checked this using a steel straight edge and seen light through it in both directions.
Need i say that my temperatures increased using this.
The rubber band fan mounts were terrible to fit in my very large case.
Glad to get rid of if and would Not recommend