Xigmatek Battle-Axe High performance GPU Cooler

Author: Jouni 'Jipa' Vasama Published: 02.05.2008 Manufacturer: Xigmatek Product Group: Cooling In English Suomeksi

Battle-Axe VD964

The Battle-Axe is a huge cooler with two 92 mm fans mounted to a fan shroud. The shroud is mainly for the outlooks and does its job well on that sector. The fans are mounted to the shroud via normal screws, but the shroud is mounted to the heatsink using soft rubber pins.

The bottom side of the heatsink reveals the four heatpipes and the aluminum base and fins. The fins are weirdly shaped and the middle section of both sides of it have been blocked. Partially blocking the heatsink may seem like an odd decission, but on the other hand the blockade only directs the airflow closer to the heatpipes.

From the side view one can see the profile of the heatsink. Also the other side is concaved, mainly to decrease turbulence and thus increase airflow through the fins.

Problem with the design

The base of the Battle-Axe is similar to the Xigmatek's HDT-S1283 CPU-cooler we tested earlier this year. The direct touch heatpipes are in theory the optimal method of moving heat from the GPU to the fins, but in practice there is a problem. In CPU-coolers these exposed pipes work well as the CPUs are basicly all the same size and have an integrated heatspreader. On the other hand GPUs vary in shape and size and a small chip only touches the two pipes on the center. With the rest of the base being aluminum, the left and the right heatpipe don't really do much.

Fans

There are two 92 mm fans mounted to the Battle-Axe. The model of these fans is AD0912MX-A76GL and they are specified for 12 V 0,17 A (2 W). These are pretty high specs for such small fans and there being two of them I don't have too high hopes for the noise levels.

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