Xigmatek Red Scorpion

The heatsink that aims to prove that red really is better.

Xigmatek is a rather quaint company, with some innovative products and interesting features. When we were sent a heatsink, we assumed that it too would share Xigmatek’s penchant for radical design, and we definitely weren’t disappointed on that front.

Nestled in thick foam the cooler is well protected during shipping to arrive with nary a dent, and comes with support for all the major sockets. Using three oversized 8mm heatpipes bent into a U shape, this effectively gives six paths for the heat to travel upwards. Once it has been moved, the aluminium fins can dissipate the heat and allow the fan to move it away.

This is all quite standard, but the base is where the innovation is. Rather than the usual method of connecting the heatpipes to a flat piece of metal that forms the base, the actual heatpipes themselves have been ground down to create a flat surface that connects almost directly to the integrated heatspreader on the CPU. The reasoning behind this is that the heat will be able to go directly into the heatpipes, and effectively cut out the base as a needless extra step. Also included is a spoiler of sorts to direct some airflow downwards toward the mobo to provide some cooling.

The fan mounting is quite strange, using rubber pegs to attach the fan. This caused the fins to be bent slightly, and repeated fan changes might damage the cooler further. The use of Intel stock clips are a convenience, but are a very bad design choice for those who swap out CPUs very often, as they are quite frail.

Performance is quite nice for the asking price, but the fan has a humming noise and gives off 53.5dBA. While it can’t handle the heat of a Quad that has been overclocked, for most Dual cores it will be very nice – and look good too.