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Home » NZXT HAVIK 140 CPU Cooler Review

NZXT HAVIK 140 CPU Cooler Review

[nextpage title=”Introduction”]

The HAVIK 140 is the first CPU cooler from NZXT. It has six heatpipes and two 140-mm fans. Let´s check it out! 

The HAVIK 140 comes in a tough cardboard box, as you see in Figure 1.

NZXT HAVIK 140Figure 1: Package

Figure 2 shows what the box contains: heatsink, fans, manual, thermal grease, and installation hardware.

NZXT HAVIK 140Figure 2: Accessories

Figure 3 displays the HAVIK 140 heatsink.

NZXT HAVIK 140Figure 3: The NZXT HAVIK 140

This cooler is discussed in detail in the following pages.

[nextpage title=”The NZXT HAVIK 140″]

Figure 4 reveals the front of the heatsink. The six heatpipes are installed in two rows, since both sides of each heatpipe come into the heatsink.

NZXT HAVIK 140Figure 4: Front view

From the side, the heatsink seems to be very small.

NZXT HAVIK 140Figure 5: Side view

Figure 6 shows the top of the cooler. The fin shape is simple.

NZXT HAVIK 140Figure 6: Top view

Figure 7 presents the structure of the heatpipes at the base.

NZXT HAVIK 140Figure 7: Heatpipes

[nextpage title=”The NZXT HAVIK 140 (Cont’d)”]In Figure 8, you see the base of the cooler, made of nickel-plated copper. This base is well-polished, with an almost mirror-like aspect.

NZXT HAVIK 140Figure 8: Base

Figure 9 reveals the 140 mm fans. They have three-pin connectors, which means they are not PWM compatible.

NZXT HAVIK 140Figure 9: Fans

Figure 10 presents one fan with the rubber holders installed. Those holders make the fan easy to install and remove, while absorbing vibrations.

NZXT HAVIK 140Figure 10: Fan holders

Figure 10 presents the heatsink with the fans installed.

NZXT HAVIK 140Figure 11: Fans installed

[nextpage title=”Installation”]

Figure 11 shows the backplate used to install the HAVIK 140, with the screws installed in the position for socket LGA1156/1155 CPUs. On socket LGA775 or socket LGA1366 CPUs, you just need to use another holes. For AMD processors, you need to use the other side of the backplate.

NZXT HAVIK 140Figure 12: Backplate

After inserting the backplate (with screws) on the solder side of the motheboard, you need to install two metal holders on the component side. Figure 13 illustrates those pieces installed on our motherboard.

NZXT HAVIK 140Figure 13: Holding system installed

Figure 14 reveals the HAVIK 140 heatsink installed in our computer. Now you can install the fans.

NZXT HAVIK 140Figure 14: Heatsink installed

In Figure 15, you can see the cooler ready to use.

NZXT HAVIK 140Figure 15: Installed in our system

[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 with the "In-place Large FFTs" option. (In this version, the software uses all available threads.)

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 isn’t 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
Zalman CNPS5X SZ 23 °C 52 dBA 2250 rpm 38 °C 57 dBA 2950 rpm 69 °C
Thermaltake SlimX3 21 °C 50 dBA 2700 rpm 46 °C 50 dBA 2750 rpm 99 °C
Cooler Master Hyper 101 21 °C 50 dBA 2600 rpm 38 °C 57 dBA 3300 rpm 71 °C
Antec Kühler H2O 620 19 °C 52 dBA 1400 rpm 34 °C 55 dBA 1400 rpm 58 °C
Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 Pro 20 °C 46 dBA 1100 rpm 36 °C 49 dBA 1300 rpm
62 °C
GlacialTech Siberia 22 °C 49 dBA 1400 rpm 34 °C 49 dBA 1400 rpm 61 °C
Evercool Transformer 3 18 °C 46 dBA 1800 rpm 33 °C 51 dBA 2250 rpm 65 °C
Zalman CNPS11X Extreme 20 °C 51 dBA 1850 rpm 34 °C 56 dBA 2050 rpm 61 °C
Thermaltake Frio OCK 15 °C 44 dBA 1000 rpm 27 °C 64 dBA 2200 rpm 51 °C
Prolimatech Genesis 18 °C 49 dBA 1050 rpm 30 °C 49 dBA 1050 rpm 54 °C
Arctic Cooling Freezer XTREME Rev. 2 15 °C 41 dBA 1050 rpm 32 °C 44 dBA 1400 rpm 60 °C
NZXT HAVIK 140 16 °C 48 dBA 1250 rpm 29 °C 49 dBA 1250 rpm 55 °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.

NZXT HAVIK 140

[nextpage title=”Main Specifications”]

The main specifications for the NZXT HAVIK 140 CPU cooler include:

  • Application: Sockets 775, 1155, 1156, 1366, AM3, AM2+, and AM2 processors
  • Dimensions: 5.5 x 4.7 x 6.5 inches (140 x 120 x 166 mm) (W x L x H)
  • Fins: Aluminum
  • Base:Nickel-plated copper
  • Heat-pipes: Six nickel-plated copper heatpipes
  • Fan: Two, 140 mm
  • Nominal fan speed: 1200 rpm
  • Fan air flow: 90.3 cfm
  • Maximum power consumption: 3.6 W
  • Nominal noise level: 25 dBA
  • Weight: 2.3 lbs (1.035 kg)
  • More information: https://www.nzxt.com
  • MSRP in the US: USD 75.00

[nextpage title=”Conclusions”]

NZXT did a good job producing the HAVIK 140 CPU cooler. Of course, any cooler with its design cannot disappoint, with a big heatsink with six U-shaped heatpipes, and two 140 mm fans with good airflow.

The result is a great cooler, although not a revolutionary one. With good performance, reasonably low noise level, simple installation and good looks, the NZXT HAVIK 140 receives the Hardware Secrets Silver Award.

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