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[nextpage title=”Introduction”]

Today, we are testing the Xigmatek Dark Knight “Night Hawk Edition” CPU cooler. It has a conservative design (with tower heatsink, three 8 mm direct-touch heatpipes, and one 120 mm fan) except for the matte black ceramic coating on the heatsink and heatpipes.

The Dark Knight Night Hawk Edition (let’s just call it “Night Hawk” from now on) is not a matte black version of the Dark Knight, which we already reviewed. Although they both have a tower design with three 8 mm heatpipes, those two coolers are very different, not sharing even the mounting system.

A matte black coating is, theoretically, a good idea, since the more reflexive a surface is, the worse it is to irradiate heat. However, on active (i.e., fan equipped) coolers, heat conduction from the fins to the flowing air is the main heat transmitting occurrence, and irradiation is almost irrelevant.

The box of the Night Hawk has a front window that allows you to see the fan (but not the heatsink) as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Package

Figure 2 shows the contents of the box: heatsink, fan, a small bag of thermal compound, manuals, and installation hardware. The Night Hawk comes with only one fan, but it supports two, coming with the rubber bolts for installing two fans.

Figure 2: Accessories

Figure 3 displays the heatsink of the Night Hawk.

Figure 3: The Night Hawk

This cooler is discussed in detail in the following pages.

[nextpage title=”The Xigmatek Dark Knight Night Hawk Edition”]

Figure 4 illustrates the front of the heatsink. Notice that all parts of the heatsink, including fins, base and heatpipes, are covered by the matte black coating.

Figure 4: Front view

Figure 5 reveals the side of the cooler. The fins are folded at the side, creating a partially closed surface.

Figure 5: Side view

In Figure 6, you can see the top of the cooler. The fins have recesses at the four sides, creating concave areas on the heatsink.

Figure 6: Top view

[nextpage title=”The Xigmatek Dark Knight Night Hawk Edition (Cont’d)”]

Figure 7 illustrates the base of the cooler. This is the only part that is not covered by the matte black coating. The three 8 mm heatpipes keep direct contact to the CPU.

Figure 7: Base

Figure 8 reveals the 120 mm fan which has four white LEDs. It has a four-pin connector, which means it supports PWM speed control.

Figure 8: Fan

Figure 9 shows the Night Hawk with the fan in place.

Figure 9: Xigmatek Dark Knight Night Hawk Edition

[nextpage title=”Installation”]

Figures 10 and 11 show the installation of the holder frame on the motherboard. You must put the backplate on the solder side of the motherboard, and then attach the four thumbscrews from the component side. Afterwards, put the metal bars (each one has a screw at the center) in place, securing them with thumbnuts.

Figure 10: Thumbscrews

Figure 11: Metal bars

Then, put the cooler in place, holding it with a transversal bar.

Figure 12: Heatsink installed

The last step is to install the fan, as shown in Figure 13.

Figure 13: Installation finished

[nextpage title=”How We Tested”]

We tested the cooler with a Core i5-2500K CPU (quad-core, 3.3 GHz), which is a socket LGA1155 processor with a 95 W TDP (Thermal Design Power). In order to get higher thermal dissipation, we overclocked it to 4.0 GHz (100 MHz base clock and x40 multiplier), with 1.3 V core voltage (Vcore). This CPU was able to reach 4.8 GHz with its default core voltage, but at this setting, the processor enters thermal throttling when using mainstream coolers, reducing the clock and thus the thermal dissipation. This could interfere with the temperature readings, so we chose to maintain a moderate overclocking.

We measured noise and temperature with the CPU under full load. In order to get 100% CPU usage in al
l cores, 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 other coolers we already tested, and to the stock cooler that comes with the Core i5-2500K CPU. Note that the results cannot be compared to measures taken on a different hardware configuration, so 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 on the next page. Every cooler was tested with the thermal compound that comes with 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 panels of the computer case were closed. The front and rear case fans were spinning at minimum speed in order to simulate the “normal” cooler use on a well-ventilated case. We assume that is the common setup used by a cooling enthusiast or overclocker.

The sound pressure level (SPL) was measured with a digital noise meter, with its sensor placed near the top opening of the case. 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 i5-2500K
• Motherboard: ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-Z
• Memory: 6 GB OCZ (DDR3-1600/PC3-12800), configured at 1,600 MHz and 8-8-8-18 timings
• Hard disk: Seagate Barracuda XT 2 TB
• Video card: Point of View GeForce GTX 460 1 GB
• Video resolution: 1920×1080
• Video monitor: Samsung SyncMaster P2470HN
• Power supply: Seventeam ST-550P-AM
• Case:  Cooler Master HAF 922

Operating System Configuration

• Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit SP1

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 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 full speed.

< tr>

Cooler	Room Temp.	Noise	Speed	Core Temp.	Temp. Diff.
Cooler Master Hyper TX3	18 °C	50 dBA	2850 rpm	69 °C	51 °C
Corsair A70	23 °C	51 dBA	2000 rpm	66 °C	43 °C
Corsair H100	26 °C	62 dBA	2000 rpm	64 °C	38 °C
EVGA Superclock	26 °C	57 dBA	2550 rpm	67 °C	41 °C
NZXT HAVIK 140	20 °C	46 dBA	1250 rpm	65 °C	45 °C
Thermalright True Spirit 120	26 °C	42 dBA	1500 rpm	82 °C	56 °C
Zalman CNPS12X	26 °C	43 dBA	1200 rpm	71 °C	45 °C
Zalman CNPS9900 Max	20 °C	51 dBA	1700 rpm	62 °C	42 °C
Titan Fenrir Siberia Edition	22 °C	50 dBA	2400 rpm	65 °C	43 °C
SilenX EFZ-120HA5	18 °C	44 dBA	1500 rpm	70 °C	52 °C
Noctua NH-L12	20 °C	44 dBA	1450 rpm	70 °C	50 °C
Zalman CNPS8900 Extreme	21 °C	53 dBA	2550 rpm	71 °C	50 °C
Gamer Storm Assassin	15 °C	48 dBA	1450 rpm	58 °C	43 °C
Deepcool Gammaxx 400	15 °C	44 dBA	1500 rpm	60 °C	45 °C
Cooler Master TPC 812	23 °C	51 dBA	2350 rpm	66 °C	43 °C
Deepcool Gammaxx 300	18 °C	43 dBA	1650 rpm	74 °C	56 °C
Intel stock cooler	18 °C	41 dBA	2000 rpm	97 °C	79 °C
Xigmatek Praeton	19 °C	52 dBA	2900 rpm	83 °C	64 °C
Noctua NH-U12P SE2	18 °C	42 dBA	1300 rpm	69 °C	51 °C
Deepcool Frostwin	24 °C	46 dBA	1650 rpm	78 °C	54 °C
Thermaltake Frio Advanced	13 °C	56 dBA	2000 rpm	62 °C	49 °C
Xigmatek Dark Knight Night Hawk Edition	9 °C	48 dBA	2100 rpm	53 °C	44 °C

In the graph below, 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.

In the graph below, you can see how many decibels of noise each cooler makes.

[nextpage title=”Main Specifications”]

The main specifications for the Xigmatek Dark Knight Night Hawk Edition CPU cooler include:

• Application: Sockets 775, 1155, 1156, 1366, 2011, AM2, AM2+, AM3, AM3+, and FM1 processors
• Heatsink dimensions: 4.7 x 2.0 x 6.2 inches (120 x 50 x 159 mm) (W x L x H)
• Fins: Aluminum
• Base: Aluminum, with heatpipes directly touching the CPU
• Heat-pipes: Three 8-mm copper heatpipes
• Fan: 120 mm
• Nominal fan speed: 2,200 rpm
• Fan air flow: 89.45 cfm
• Maximum power consumption: Not informed
• Nominal noise level: 30.1 dBA
• Weight: 14.32 oz (406 g)
• More information: https://www.xigmatek.com
• Average prince in the U.S.*: USD 50.00

* Researched at Newegg.com on the day we published this review.

[nextpage title=”Conclusions”]

The Xigmatek Dark Knight Night Hawk Edition has an excellent cooling performance, especially when taking into account that it is a medium-size cooler with only one 120 mm fan. In our system, it doesn’t interfere with any memory socket, allowing us to install memory modules with tall heatsinks in any socket if that is what we want.

The noise level is reasonable for a high-performance CPU cooler, and the Night Hawk looks really cool inside the case, with its “stealth-like” coating and the semi-transparent fan with white LEDs. The price tag is very attractive, too.

In short, the Xigmatek Dark Knight Night Hawk Edition has great performance, good noise level, great look, and an excellent price/performance ratio, deserving our Golden Award.