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[nextpage title=”Introduction”]

Today we are testing the only CPU cooler from Intel available on the retail market, the XTS100H. It is compatible with sockets 1155/1156, has a tower heatsink, three heatpipes and a 95 mm fan. Check it out!

The XTS100H resembles to the DBX-B Intel cooler, which we already reviewed. The DBX-B, however, is bigger, and fits only socket LGA1366 CPUs. Although the name of this cooler is XTS100H, it is also sold as DHX-B or BXXTS100H.

This cooler can be bought alone, but it is advertised as a companion for the Intel Core i7-875K and Core i5-655K processors, which are unlocked, overclocking-aimed CPUs that come without a cooler.

The XTS100H box is big and uses the same graphical design used on Intel CPU boxes, as you can see in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Package

In Figure 2, you can see what comes inside the box: the cooler itself, thermal compound, and a manual.

Figure 2: Accessories

In Figure 3, you can see the XTS100H.

Figure 3: The XTS100H CPU cooler

In the next pages, you will see this cooler in detail.

[nextpage title=”The XTS100H”]

In Figure 4, you see the front of the cooler. It has a transparent 95-mm fan with blue LEDs, protected by a metallic grill.

Figure 4: Front view

In Figure 5, you can see the side of the cooler, where the three heatpipes are visible.

Figure 5: Front view

In Figure 6, you check the cooler rear side. The fins are plain here.

Figure 6: Rear view

In Figure 7, you can see the cooler from the top. Note the small switch that is used to set the cooler to the performance (P) or quiet (Q) modes.

Figure 7: Top view

[nextpage title=”The XTS100H (Cont’d)”]In Figure 8, you can see the base of the cooler. It is made of finely polished copper, with a perfectly mirrored aspect.

Figure 8: Base

In Figure 9, you see the cooler without the metallic grill that protects the fan. The fan itself cannot be easely removed. Here we could see the name of the true manufacturer of the fan, Foxconn. The fan uses a four-pin connector, thus supporting PWM speed control.

Figure 9: Fan

The thermal compound that comes with the XTS100H is the Dow Corning TC-1996.

Figure 10: Thermal compound

[nextpage title=”Installation”]The installation of the XTS100H is simple. First, put the backplate shown in Figure 11 on the solder side of the motherboard.

Figure 11: Backplate

Then put the cooler on top of the CPU and fasten the four screws that hold it in place. In Figure 12, you can see the cooler installed in our case.

Figure 12: Installed in our case

The fan has blue LEDs, as you can see in Figure 13.

Figure 13: Fan LEDs glowing

[nextpage title=”How We Tested”]

We tested the cooler with a Core i7-860 CPU (quad-core, 2.8 GHz), which is a socket LGA1156 processor with a 95 W TDP (Thermal Design Power). In order to get higher thermal dissipation, we overclocked it to 3.3 GHz (150 MHz base clock and 22x multiplier), keeping the standard core voltage (Vcore), which was the maximum stable overclock we could make with the stock cooler. Keep in mind that we could have raised the CPU clock more, but to include the stock cooler in our comparison, we needed to use this moderate overclock.

We measured noise and temperature with the CPU idle and under full load. In order to get 100% CPU usage in all threads, we ran Prime 95 25.11 (in this version, the software uses all available threads) with the "In-place Large FFTs" option.

We compared the tested cooler to the Intel stock cooler with a copper base (included with the CPU), as well as with other coolers. Note that in the past, we tested coolers with a socket LGA775 CPU, and we retested some "old" coolers with this new methodology. This means you can find different values in older reviews than the values you will read in the next page. Every cooler was tested with the thermal compound that accompanies it.

Room temperature measurements were taken with a digital thermometer. The core temperature was read with the SpeedFan program (available from the CPU thermal sensors), using an arithmetic average of the core temperature readings. During the tests, the left panel of the case was open.

The sound pressure level (SPL) was measured with a digital noise meter, with its sensor placed 4" (10 cm) from the fan. We turned off the case and video board cooler fans so they wouldn’t interfere with the results. This measurement is only for comparison purposes because a precise SPL measurement needs to be made inside an acoustically insulated room with no other noise sources, which is not the case here.

Hardware Configuration

• Processor: Core i7-860
• Motherboard: Gigabyte P55A-UD6
• Memory: 2 GB Markvision (DDR3-1333/PC3-10700 with 9-9-9-22 timings), configured at 1,200 MHz
• Hard disk: Seagate Barracuda XT 2 TB
• Video card: Zotac GeForce GTS 250
• Video resolution: 1680×1050
• Video monitor: Samsung Syncmaster 2232BW Plus
• Power supply: Seventeam ST-550P-AM
• Case: 3RSystem L-1100 T.REX Cool

Operating System Configuration

• Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit

Software Used

• Prime95
• SpeedFan

Error Margin

We adopted a 2 °C error margin, meaning temperature differences below 2 °C are considered irrelevant.

[nextpage title=”Our Tests”]

The table below presents the results of our measurements. We repeated the same test on all coolers listed below. Each measurement was taken with the CPU at idle and at full load. In the models with a fan supporting PWM, the motherboard controlled the fan speed according to core load and temperature. On coolers with an integrated fan controller, the fan was set at the minimum speed on the idle test and at full speed on the full load test.

		Idle Processor			Processor at Full Load
Cooler	Room Temp.	Noise	Speed	Core Temp.	Noise	Speed	Core Temp.
Intel stock (socket LGA1156)	14 °C	44 dBA	1700 rpm	46 °C	54 dBA	2500 rpm	90 °C
Cooler Master Hyper TX3 G1	14 °C	47 dBA	2050 rpm	33 °C	56 dBA	2900 rpm	62 °C
Zalman CNPS10X Extreme	14 °C	45 dBA	1400 rpm	27 °C	53 dBA	1950 rpm	51 °C
Thermaltake Silent 1156	14 °C	44 dBA	1200 rpm	38 °C	49 dBA	1750 rpm	69 °C
Noctua NH-D14	14 °C	49 dBA	1250 rpm	27 °C	49 dBA	1250 rpm	53 °C
Zalman CNPS10X Performa	14 °C	46 dBA	1500 rpm	28 °C	52 dBA	1950 rpm	54 °C
Prolimatech Megahalems	14 °C	40 dBA	750 rpm	27 °C	60 dBA	2550 rpm	50 °C
Thermaltake Frio	14 °C	46 dBA	1450 rpm	27 °C	60 dBA	2500 rpm	50 °C
Prolimatech Samuel 17	14 °C	40 dBA	750 rpm	40 °C	60 dBA	2550 rpm	63 °C
Zalman CNPS8000A	18 °C	43 dBA	1400 rpm	39 °C	54 dBA	2500 rpm	70 °C
Spire TherMax Eclipse II	14 °C	55 dBA	2200 rpm	28 °C	55 dBA	2200 rpm	53 °C
Scythe Ninja3	17 °C	39 dBA	700 rpm	32 °C	55 dBA	1800 rpm	57 °C
Corsair A50	18 °C	52 dBA	1900 rpm	33 °C	52 dBA	1900 rpm	60 °C
Thermaltake Jing	18 °C	44 dBA	850 rpm	34 °C	49 dBA	1300 rpm	60 °C
GlacialTech Alaska	18 °C	43 dBA	1150 rpm	36 °C	51 dBA	1600 rpm	60 °C
Deepcool Gamer Storm	18 °C	43 dBA	1100 rpm	35 °C	48 dBA	1600 rpm	62 °C
Corsair A70	26 °C	56 dBA	1900 rpm	40 °C	56 dBA	1900 rpm	65 °C
Deepcool Ice Blade Pro	23 °C	45 dBA	1200 rpm	38 °C	52 dBA	1500 rpm	64 °C
AC Freezer 7 Pro Rev. 2	23 °C	47 dBA	1750 rpm	44 °C	51 dBA	2100 rpm	77 °C
Corsair H70	27 °C	60 dBA	1900 rpm	37 °C	60 dBA	1900 rpm	61 °C
Zalman CNPS9900 Max	27 °C	55 dBA	1600 rpm	38 °C	58 dBA	1750 rpm	63 °C
Arctic Cooling Freezer 11 LP	25 °C	45 dBA	1700 rpm	51 °C	49 dBA	1950 rpm	91 °C
CoolIT Vantage	26 °C	60 dBA	2500 rpm	37 °C	60 dBA	2500 rpm	62 °C
Deepcool Ice Matrix 600	25 °C	46 dBA	1100 rpm	41 °C	53 dBA	1300 rpm	69 °C
Titan Hati	26 °C	46 dBA	1500 rpm	40 °C	57 dBA	2450 rpm	68 °C
Arctic Cooling Freezer 13	27 °C	49 dBA	1950 rpm	41 °C	53 dBA	2300 rpm	70 °C
Noctua NH-C14	26 °C	52 dBA	1300 rpm	37 °C	52 dBA	1300 rpm	61 °C
Intel XTS100H	26 °C	49 dBA	1200 rpm	42 °C	64 dBA	2600 rpm	68 °C

In the graph below, at full load you can see how many degrees Celsius hotter the CPU core is than the air outside the case. The lower this difference, the better is the performance of the cooler.

 

[nextpage title=”Main Specifications”]

The main features of the Intel XTS100H CPU cooler include:

• Application: Socket LGA1155 and 1156 processors
• Fins: Aluminum
• Base: Copper
• Heat-pipes: Three 6-mm copper heatpipes
• Fan: 95 mm
• Nominal fan speed: 2600 rpm
• Fan air flow: NA
• Maximum power consumption: 10.8 W
• Nominal noise level: 45 dBA
• Weight: 1.95 lbs (885 g)
• More information: https://www.intel.com
• Average price in the US*: USD 42.50

* Reseached at Amazon.com on the day we published this review.[nextpage title=”Conclusions”]

The Intel XTS100H is a good CPU cooler for socket LGA1155/1156 CPUs. It has shown a performance level that rivals to bigger coolers from brands that have more tradition in the CPU cooling market.

The main drawback of this cooler is not the fact it doesn’t support other CPU sockets, nor its price, which is nice considering its performance. The problem is the annoying, extra-loud, high-pitch noise it makes while in the performance mode and the CPU is under full load. It was, actually, the noisiest cooler we tested so far.

Thanks to the good performance, the Intel XTS100H may be a good choice if you have an overclocked socket LGA1155/1156 CPU, if you don’t require silence. But if you don’t like a loud high-pitch sound while you are working or gaming, you can let it on the "quiet" mode (loosing some performance) or you can look for a different cooler.