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Introduction
While heatsinks have become a common feature at Overclockers Tech since the start of this year, Prolimatech’s Megahalems never really made much of an impact in our testing. That said we did review the more expensive Mega Shadow variant that wasn’t worth the extra £20 premium over the original and didn’t perform too well on AM3 based systems compared to the Venomous X or Titan Fenrir. The Megahalems was and still is a cooler capable of serious cooling with high performance, high static pressure fans. The introduction of Cogage (Thermalright’s sister company) and their new Arrow cooler based on an update of the IFX-14 has all but taken the crown from the big boys and now reigns king here at OCT. However such coolers like the Arrow and Noctua’s NH-D14 are huge twin tower cooling beasts that are not compatible for most people regarding space requirements. What Prolimatech have done is they have brought a small sized (not pocket-sized) cooler that still will pack a serious blow with its 6 heatpipes and the ability to mount two 140mm fans. The Armageddon has some pretty big shoes to fill, but can it still perform with the best?
About Prolimatech
Prolimatech (founded in 2008 and based in Taiwan) stands for Professionalism exceeding beyond all Limits. We are here to challenge any limits that stand in our way to achieve what was thought to be impossible. Prolimatech incorporates integration of the aerospace resource-saving technology and advanced heat conduction technology to create the best heat absorption and dissipation solutions while pertaining to the science of aesthetics. Our never-ending quest is to satisfy every computer overclocker’s and every enthusiast’s needs for high quality and performance oriented thermal solutions for their high-end computer components.
Specifications
Size (LxWxH): 144x60x160mm
Weight: 1.65 LBS (750 Grams)
Heatpipes: 6x 6mm Sintered
Fan(s): Supports 2x 140mm or 120mm fans
Socket: Intel LGA775/1156/1366
Clip System: Bolt-Through with Back-Plate
Base: Polished Nickel Plated Copper
The Cooler
Prolimatech seem to be on a role as of late. Each product produced has been of high quality, but also more importantly effective. For the market they are in, to start up a company in 2008 and become a well known brand for producing top of the line coolers in a very competitive market is impressive and is only what most other cooling companies can dream of. It usually takes several releases before they start to find a winning formula, but Prolimatech came out like a bang with one of the best coolers on the scene; the Megahalems.
The technical guys at Prolimatech have done things a little differently this time around creating a cooler that not only will have great cooling properties, but not at the cost of losing silence as the Megahalems with its dense fins was built for high speed (noisy) fans. The Armageddon offers a wider radiator and fins at a lesser depth whist still retaining the Megahalems properties.
Looking through the fins, you can see the cooler utilizing 12 heatpipe rods to be in direct contact with any passing airflow while still not taking up too much space; hence a design for a longer than normal radiator and offering serious cooling potential.
The look and feel of the cooler has to be the best we have come across. The whole unit is very sturdy, well built and feels like what an enthusiast piece of equipment should feel like. If one was to grasp various heatsinks and drop them on the floor from a fair height, I can guarantee this cooler will come out on top, it’s that well made.
At £55 the cooler is quite expensive, even more so if you consider the fact it comes with zero fans. It seems to me the branding of Prolimatech has become more of a status symbol. While Thermalright products are generally high price items, the introduction of their sister company Cogage has brought lower cost coolers to the market including the best cooler. The Arrow comes in at only £45 and does include a PWM 120x25mm fan rated at 800-1700RPM. Consider also that the original Megahalems costs £45 now, looks and build quality aside, the Armageddon may have a tough time getting off the ground.
Regarding the fans, Prolimatech does supply 4 clips out of the box to support two fans in push-pull, both 120mm and 140mm. Moreover, aside from the industry leading mounting kit we love at OCT, you are also given a tube of PK-1 thermal paste which is some of the best TIM on the market.
The base isn’t a mirror finish, but is machined very well and is smooth. Prolimatech state that this precision machining will offer the end user the best cooling possible. The base is ever so slightly convex also.
Additionally if you look closely, each fin has been rounded off perfectly. This not only looks great along with the gun metal finish, but saves any nasty cuts during installation or handling the product.
The top of the cooler has been fitted with an aluminum shield. Were not exactly sure what this is for – air resistance or for looks, it’s not clear. However it is nice to see that the childish writing of the name Armageddon has been removed from earlier test samples. However the annoying thing about the top is that it’s susceptible to a lot of dirty fingerprints.
Test Method
All our coolers follow the same rigorous testing conditions. We strapped on a single 120mmx38mm fan in the shape of the San Ace 9G1212H1011, widely considered one of the best fans on the market due to its under-volting ability (lower RPM) and high static pressure – perfect for heatsinks. This fan can produce up to 99CFM at full speed. If a heatsink is supplied with a fan, we shall be testing that stock fan(s) on full RPM.
We now use LinX Build 0.6.1 for our entire load testing of heatsinks as this stresses the CPU more so than other load tests and really puts strain on the heatsinks. Idle testing was taken after a LinX run had finished. We allowed a ‘cooling off period of 10 minutes for the idle test. Both minimum and maximum temperatures were taken from Real Temp Build 3.58; an average of the cores was taken. Any energy saving features were disabled in the BIOS. OCZ Freeze was the TIM of choice.
All tests were run a minimum of 3 times (each run was followed by a remounting of the heatsink) and only the best results are represented. Our test system can hit 4.41GHz stable with 1.45v. However, due to the high voltage, not all heatsinks can cope, so we decided on a safe voltage level of 1.35v, and a lower stable clock speed of 4.20GHz for our testing.
Test System
Intel Core i7 930 @ 4.20GHz w/ 1.35v
Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7
HIS HD 5850 1024MB
Corsair Dominator GTX2
Enermax Modu87+ 700W
Intel X25-M G2 80GB
The Results
Analysis
While looking over the results it’s important to note that this cooler isn’t aimed at replacing the Megahalems, rather this cooler is designed for those PC enthusiast who want the best, but don’t want to sacrifice their sound level comforts with high static fans screaming all day long next to your burning ear. With regards to that very statement, the Armageddon does its job 100%. While utilizing our usual high performance San Ace H1011 fan that we use on all our coolers to find the very limits of each cooler here at OCT, the Armageddon was no slouch with being just 8C behind the very best cooler; the Cogage Arrow.
When we opted for two 1000RPM 140x25mm (140mm Xigmatek XLF-F1453)Â low noise fans in push-pull, we retained a reading on our overclocked i7 system of 12C behind the Arrow. Now that may sound a lot, but looking over the result of the Megahalems using the San Ace fan set on full throttle, the Armageddon using the two quiet 140mm fans was only 7C behind on a loaded 4.2GHz i7 system using 1.35v. 7C sounds like a big margin and it would be if it was compared using the same fans, but it wasn’t. To be 7C behind its big brother with a high RPM performance fan is a great achievement for a cooler that was almost silent throughout testing. Even when we strapped on the high performance fan to the Armageddon, it was a mere 3C behind the Megahalems. Now, the Megahalems still comes out on top, but that is to be expected with its tighter depth of fins. As Prolimatech state themselves “ this isn’t meant to rival the best coolers (even if it does a good job of that), it’s for those consumers who want the best but not having to put up with noise and in that respect ticks all the right boxes here.
Conclusion
There are a lot of great things we love about this cooler. It performs very well using silent or high performance fans, the ability to mount two 140mm fans for push-pull, the great build quality and superb looks. Another thing we loved about this cooler was the mounting kit, in this reviewers opinion one of the best on the market with its ease of installation, but also very effective with lots of pressure. The slight issue we have though is its price. As mentioned earlier, the branding of Prolimatech has become a premium icon in the cooling business and thus a high price will have to be paid. That said £55 is £55. That is a lot of money for a CPU cooler with no fans. If you wanted to do as we did with two 140x25mm fans, in total you’d of spent in the region of £80. When an air based CPU cooler gets into those figures, you might as well opt for a low cost water cooling solution that will be just as quiet but above all more effective. If Prolimatech were ever to drop the price down by a decent £15 or include in their price an effective 140x25mm fan, then this cooler would get a well deserved Gold Award from us, but instead is awarded with high Silver and 8.5/10.
Pros:
Great cooling ability with silent fans
Mounts two 140x25mm fans (clips included)
Six high quality 6mm heatpipesWell built and strong
Nice gun-metal finish
Best mounting kit around
Supplied with some top TIM; PK-1
Cons:
No AMD Kit supplied
Price!
No fan(s) included
Thanks
Special mention to Steven Lee at Prolimatech for sending the test sample for review.
