| NZXT HAVIK 140 CPU Cooler |  |
| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Cooling | ||||||||
| Written by David Ramsey | ||||||||
| Tuesday, 16 August 2011 | ||||||||
Page 3 of 6
HAVIK 140 Detailed FeaturesThe NZXT HAVIK 140's fans are attached with unique rubber bands. The bands are designed so the part that inserts into the fan also serves as padding between the fan and the heat sink fins for noise reduction. The push-through connectors at the ends of the rubber bands are too thick to push through standard fan mounting holes, so if you want to use other fans, you'll have to come up with your own mounting solution. The tension of the rubber fan mounts bends the bottom fins of the heat sink in slightly.
This view shows the HAVIK's unusual staggered heat pipe arrangement.
The HAVIK's backplate fits all Intel and AMD sockets the heat sink supports. You push mounting screws through the plastic friction plates which hold them in place. The black plastic friction plates are removed for AMD installations. 
Friction-fit black plastic spacers push over the backplate screws as they protrude through the motherboard. Most other coolers would use screws here, but it's not necessary and the push-on spacers make it quick and easy to secure the backplate for the next step. The protruding screws locate two mounting brackets (helpfully stamped with arrows that point towards the processor), which are in turn secured with knurled nuts. Note the screw post in the center of the bracket: this is that the heat sink's mounting crossbar will be secured to.
A separate crossbar fits over the base of the heat sink and screws down to the posts on the mounting brackets. A rather strong spring under the crossbar's mounting screw (not visible in this image) provides the clamping pressure, and although NZXT doesn't specify this pressure, it seems like quite a lot. This mounting mechanism is mechanically very similar to the ones used by other high-end heat sinks such as the Prolimatech Megahalems. 
Installed and ready for testing, the HAVIK in this orientation does cover the first RAM slot in my ASUS Sabertooth X58 motherboard. It covers the first RAM slot when mounted with the fans blowing front-to-back, too. 
OK, let's see how NZXT's first CPU cooler performs.
|
||||||||
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