Intel Core i7 / LGA1366 CPU Cooler Roundup

Conclusions

Cogage True Spirit

I should go without saying that we were hoping for a lot more from the Cogage Spirit considering how the pedigree of its forefathers.. When we tested this cooler and the dust settled it was impressively close to matching the once-mighty Thermalright TRUE which would have been impressive…if this was two years ago. In the terms of modern CPU cooling solutions, the TRUE isn’t what we would consider King of the Hill anymore but the fact that the much cheaper Spirit nearly equaled it at some points was mildly impressive. The fan isn’t anything to write home about either.

When compared against other coolers in its price range the Spirit also seems to come up a bit short as well. Besides there being better products out there for your money one of the main problems we have with Cogage’s product is the fact that it will only mount onto an Intel i7 / 1366 system. Not only is this a slap in the face to a once-again growing AMD market but the fact that it doesn’t support Intel’s 775 or newer 1156 standards is just mind boggling. We are sure there will be additional mounting brackets available sometime in the future but who in their right mind would buy a budget cooler and then pony up the money for mounting hardware that should have been included in the first place? All in all, this lack of compatibility reeks of cost cutting in a horribly obvious way.

Honestly, the only saving grace of this cooler is the fact you can find it for a fairly reasonable price and this combined with its TRUE heritage do make a convincing argument in its favor. To this end, we may not like it but we do have to respect its capabilities when compared to lower-end heatsinks.

The final nail in the coffin comes from the fact that there are better-performing alternatives which come standard with many more mounting options and some of them even beat the Spirit in terms of cost.


Pros:

- Near TRUE performance levels at most thermal loads
- Quick installation
- Dual fan capable design
- Good value for its cost


Cons:

- Not anywhere near best in class performance
- Fast but sub-optimal push-pin installation
- Can only mount on Intel 1366 CPUs
- Mediocre fan
- Only enough brackets to mount one fan

Kingwin XT-1264

Considering the hopes we had for it, the Kingwin XT-1264 is a real heartbreaker. On the one hand it is an amalgamation of some great coolers and really does have the potential to be even greater than the sum of its parts. Sadly, this is not the case and if it was not for its high performance fan it would have done even worse in the testing phase.

This cooler is simply handicapped by last generation levels of base finishing. It should have efficiency to spare but it seems to be saddled with a base that most other manufacturers perfected more than a year ago. The real key to an HDT’s success is actually having good contact with the CPU and perfectly polished base really is the key and in the past we have seen manufactures (like Cooler Master) bring some high quality HDT bases to the market.

In many ways the performance of the Kingwin XT isn’t bad per se and if you do find it for a reasonable price you will be happy with the results. We were just expecting more from it considering the size advantage it has over some other HDT-based heatsinks that have been on the market for a while. Honestly though, its inability to mount dual fans is the final nail in its coffin as far as we are concerned.

With that being said, if you are looking for a CPU cooling solution and don’t plan to overclock (and don’t mind swapping out the fan for a quieter one) this cooler does have a glimmer of potential as the value numbers do speak favorably for it.


Pros:

- Quick installation
- HDT base
- Fast AMD installation
- High performance fan
- Reasonable price


Cons:

- Speed of installation comes at the cost of performance
- Fan is loud
- Better products for less money abound in this market
- Sub optimal performance results when using a 1300RPM fan
- Looks, acts and feel like a last-gen product