Xigmatek Red Scorpion S1283 CPU Cooler

(4.5 star rating) Written by: William Ford

The Red Scorpion S1283 CPU Cooler is one of the newest offerings from Xigmatek. It is a heat pipe, direct-touch, air cooling system for all Intel Socket 775 CPUs and AMD Socket AM2/754/939/940 CPUs. The design uses copper heat pipes through a system of aluminum alloy fins to effectively remove heat from the CPU and then disperses it with a 120mm fan.

Just how well does it work on one of the fastest and hottest processors on the market – an Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650? We'll find out today.

Design

The Red Scorpion is not the smallest CPU cooler in the world, not by a long shot. Including the fan, it weighs in at 600g and this makes it a fairly heavy cooler once it’s all assembled. It is, however, quite aesthetically pleasing with a red color scheme outlining a dark gray frame with large, bright orange fan blades. It will certainly stand out in most computer cases, and it uses 4 white LEDs that are mounted at each of the corners of the fan.

Specifications

• Thermal resistance: 0.15ºC/W

• Weight: 600g w/fan
• Entire dimension: 120mm W x 50mm D x 159mm H
• Heat pipes: 3
• Pipe size: 8mm
• Fin material: Aluminum alloy
• Fan Dimensions: 120mm X 120mm X 25mm
• Voltage rating: 12V
• Speed: 800-1500 RPM
• Bearing type: Rifle bearing
• Air flow: 72.1-99.6 CFM
• Air pressure: 2.6-4.8 mmH2O
• Noise level: 18-28 dBA
• Available color: 4 white LED
• Connector: 4-pin w/PWM

Red Scorpion Box	Red Scorpion Contents	Red Scorpion Installed - Lights On

Test Setup

• Operating System: Vista Home Premium x64
• Motherboard: EVGA 680i SLI Premium
• CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650 @ 3GHz
• Memory: 8GB OCZ DDR2
• Video card: Dual PNY GeForce 9800GTX+
• Hard drive: Hitachi 500GB SATA

There are four 120mm case fans pumping air through the system to help cool the inside. However, the processor gets minimal benefit from the case fans so a good cooling solution is imperative for this system.

Red Scorpion Installed - Lights Off		Red Scorpion Under Load

Performance

After installing the CPU cooler and attaching my thermal sensor, I let the computer warm up for about an hour and checked the CPU temperature at idle and it was a cool 37.4ºC which is a really good idle temperature for this processor. I then started running several CPU intensive programs to put the processor under 100% load. I ran a full Windows Defender scan, a full Avast Antivirus disc scan, started Photoshop with 30 1280x1024 photos open, Cyberlink PowerDVD playing "The Matrix". I noticed that the CPU was still not quite at 100% load so I opened 3 Internet Explorer windows with 3 different YouTube videos playing and the load finally hit 100%. After another half hour or so, I checked the processor temperature again and astonishingly it was only at 40.8ºC .

Overclocking

At this point I was impressed; not only with the Xigmatek Red Scorpion but with this computer altogether. I next wanted to check the overclock capabilities of the system. I set the system bus speed to1366 and booted up the computer. The computer failed to load Windows. I set the bus speed back to 1350 and tried again; again it failed to boot all the way up. I tried one last time and set the bus speed to 1342 and the computer still failed to boot properly. I still don't know what cause the boot failures but it wasn't because of overheating because the temperature never went over 39ºC during the entire trial. I set the bus speed back to 1333 and the computer booted without incident. There are no throttles in the BIOS that I could find to account for the failures but suffice it to say the Red Scorpion had no problem with overclocking; the failure was not due to heat.

Noise

The Red Scorpion is also extremely quiet. It uses four rubber grommets to attach the fan to the heatsink which absorb the vibration of the fan making this one very quiet CPU cooler. It is also a very nice looking device with four white LEDs inside a blood red fan. A perfect match for anyone with a windowed case looking for a "pretty" CPU cooler. On the downside, it is a little heavy and I recommend using the "Crossbow" backing plate (which was graciously included with the cooler for our testing purposes) to make sure the device is securely installed on the CPU.

Xigmatek Red Scorpion S1283 CPU Cooler

To summarize, the Xigmatek Red Scorpion S1283 is an excellent CPU cooler than more than that gets the job done. It is extremely quiet, even as the CPU load ramps up, and keeps the CPU quite cool. The large size may not be the best choice for some users, and you will definitely want to make sure your motherboard and case layout will support a CPU cooler of this size. At an average price online of $45 USD, it is also very competitively priced. Any self proclaimed geek would be happy with it, not to mention anyone who just wants a very good CPU cooler.

Pros: Compatible with nearly all Intel and AMD CPUs, very quiet, good for overclocking, aesthetically pleasing.

Cons: 600g heavy, may require purchasing the "Crossbow" back plate.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

www.xigmatek.com