OCZ Gladiator MAX CPU Cooler
Test Results
Published: 2nd February 2009 | Source: OCZ | Price: £32.07 |
I ran the test at both stock settings and overclocked settings in both idle and load conditions to best simulate the working environment of a Home/Office PC.
Stock Settings
The idle temperatures were taken 10 minutes into Windows Vista and CPU load was checked using Windows Task Manager. The Load temp was taken through Realtemp 2.70 and was the maximum recorded temperature during 5 runs of IntelBurn Test 1.6.
Overclocked Settings
The idle temperatures were taken 10 minutes into windows Vista and CPU load was checked using Windows Task manager. The Load temp was taken through Realtemp 2.70 and was the maximum recorded temperature during 5 runs of IntelBurn Test 1.6.
The idle temperatures were taken 10 minutes into windows Vista and CPU load was checked using Windows Task manager. The Load temp was taken through Realtemp 2.70 and was the maximum recorded temperature during 5 runs of IntelBurn Test 1.6.
Results Analysis
At stock settings the OCZ Gladiator is clearly the best cooler beating both the Intel stock cooler and Asus Triton by a clear margin. Matters change however once we begin to overclock the CPU to 3.8Ghz. The Asus gained a lot of ground on the OCZ here and while not quite matching the idle temperatures of the Gladiator it was ever so slightly better when the CPU was put under 100% load. This however comes at a cost as the OCZ was whisper quiet throughout the testing which is a lot more than can be said of the Asus.
Let's head over to the conclusion where I gather my thoughts on the Gladiator Max...
Most Recent Comments
The Gladiator looks like a solid performer. Great review.Has anyone patented HDT technology? I've seen some Xigmatek CPU coolers which use it too.
Xigmatek were the first to use it iirc.
Hmm direct heatpipe touch :') Any chance of comparing it with the noctua U12P 1366 or a TRUE w/ bolt thru?
I have a Noctua sat next to me but it isn't a review item sadly.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by name='w3bbo'
Xigmatek were the first to use it iirc.
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Looks like a solid cooler. Shame they didn't bring in the dimpled fin design of the Vendetta series
Great review!
I would have liked a comparison with the Vendetta 2 actually. For some reason I expect the Vendetta 2 to perform better, just because the way the heatpipes are arranged. The 3 heatpipes of the V2 will all make contact with the CPU HS, and more to the center of it, while in the case with 4 heatpipes the 2 on the edges will not be such a great addition, making contact with the outer edges of the HS.
Correct me if I'm wrong. 8mm vs. 6mm heatpipes do make a big difference though.
I would have liked a comparison with the Vendetta 2 actually. For some reason I expect the Vendetta 2 to perform better, just because the way the heatpipes are arranged. The 3 heatpipes of the V2 will all make contact with the CPU HS, and more to the center of it, while in the case with 4 heatpipes the 2 on the edges will not be such a great addition, making contact with the outer edges of the HS.
Correct me if I'm wrong. 8mm vs. 6mm heatpipes do make a big difference though.
i vote aswell for a comparison someday, but right now, it looks pretty good, and for some reason when i look at it, i feel its pretty solid, no flimsy blades from the heatsink, but anyways that's just a pic. another question, is it alot smaller than the true or is the dfi mobo pretty "slim/clean" near the cpu socket? it looks like a small heatsink on the pic 
or maybe is because the heatsink of the mobo is giant and make it look smaller?
or maybe is because the heatsink of the mobo is giant and make it look smaller?Don't like hdt for the person who may switch out cpus - but obviously that's not "normal".
Looks just as a v2 evolution, big thing is the fan and it's mount - very very quiet from my experience. Bad for me that I haven't got a mobo that allows install with the fan rear facing.
Decent enough.
Looks just as a v2 evolution, big thing is the fan and it's mount - very very quiet from my experience. Bad for me that I haven't got a mobo that allows install with the fan rear facing.
Decent enough.
Very nice fan...however OCZ have give us in the retail trade a pain in the ass...our tech support guys have noticed that OCZ have changed the mounting method on 3 of there 6 fans for 775 under 30 quid heatsinks to the cheapest push pins you can buy...I mean these push pin mounts make the stock intel ones look high quality...we used to use vendettas as they came with back plate on our system builds until we noticed they had changed them...worst thing was they then changed back...maybe its a production problem...but its bloody annoying...maybe its just my preference though as I truly hate pushpin design...you never seem to get good contact and weight on larger coolers is always a problem...anyway ive gone off topic...nice review...nice cooler....keep up the good work
Why does everything look like the TRUE these days? :>
-HypoG
-HypoG
TRUE is perhaps the best so no surprise that people use a similar design.
I'm not a fan of HDT designs - when I tested the xigmatek designs they were outperformed by a £10 akasa ak-965 cooler.
I believe they're fundementally flawed - the increased material for heat to pass through in a more traditional copper baseplate design in no way harms performance - quite the opposite. A baseplate ensures better contact with the cpu's IHS, makes contact with more of the heatpipes surface area and better distribute the heatload amongst all the heatpipes.
I believe they're fundementally flawed - the increased material for heat to pass through in a more traditional copper baseplate design in no way harms performance - quite the opposite. A baseplate ensures better contact with the cpu's IHS, makes contact with more of the heatpipes surface area and better distribute the heatload amongst all the heatpipes.
Odd... How did you apply the TIM? It's been found that application method makes quite a bit of difference on HDT coolers
The Xigmateks had quite significant gaps between the heatpipes and the base 'fins', so I applied the TIM to the heatsink rather than the IHS to ensure no air pockets. Then after test mounting (which squeezed out any excess paste), any excess paste was removed from the sides and the paste on the IHS flattened/redistubuted on the IHS, before the cooler was mounted properly.
After testing, when the cooler was removed there were no voids in paste with only a thin even layer between IHS and heatpipe, but with mounds of excess paste filling in the gaps between heatpipes.
After testing, when the cooler was removed there were no voids in paste with only a thin even layer between IHS and heatpipe, but with mounds of excess paste filling in the gaps between heatpipes.
I applied the thermal paste by hand to ensure a full, even spread - and to make sure all the voids were filled. The biggest issue is that without a baseplate to distribute the heat, the outermost heatpiped made only partial contact, and a good proportion of the centre of the IHS wasn't in contact with the heatpipes, but were either contacting the aluminium 'fins' of the base or the gaps between.
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OCZ Gladiator MAX CPU Cooler