Packaging and Accessories

The box that the Xigmatek came in is certainly not the most robust box we have seen, and while it is not the worst, it is down there. This is not due to an ugly color scheme or anything like along those lines; it has to do with the fact that the box material is an extremely lightweight cardboard. In point of fact, calling it cardboard may give the wrong connotations as it is not that thick, it is more like a very heavy card stock used for posters and whatnot. This means that there is very little protection afforded the somewhat fragile cooler.


As you can see this box has a nice and larger plastic view port / window and in most cases we don’t like to see this as it reduces the integrity of the box, and more importantly reduces the protective abilities of the box. However this is not most cases and in this particular instance it doesn’t make protecting the box's content any harder as the plastic is probably just as strong as the cardboard surrounding it. On the positive side, this window allows you a very good glimpse of what is inside and in the retail end of the market a picture may be worth a thousand words but an actual glimpse of the product is worth a thousand units sold!


Honestly, while the outside protective layers leave a lot to be desired, the internal packaging scheme is a different matter all together. When you do open the box your first glimpse of the Xigmatek is nothing but protective foam. Just as with more expensive units we have reviewed in the past, Xigmatek has taken the overkill route and gone for a protective scheme that is both light-weight and yet extremely protective of its contents. This foam will take a heck of a lot of trauma before allowing any of it to be passed on to the cooler. The only downside to this scheme is the front of the fan is not protected; however, it is safe to say that most people would rather lose a fan rather than have the actual unit damaged as fans are cheap and easy to replace. This certainly erased any negative first impressions we were forming of the HDT-S1283 and in fact was down right impressive given the low cost of this unit. At least now we know why we can see why the exterior packagin was a bit flimsy.


The accessories that come with the Xigmatek were all of very good quality. This was actually a little bit surprising as most companies cut corners with the accessories so as to help keep the cost of the unit low. This really does show that Xigmatek cares about its reputation (and more importantly about is customers), and wants to produce the best cooler possible at the lowest price possible. This is a truly laudable goal and definitely leaves us with a good first impression. The full list of accessories was mounting equipment for both AMD 939/AM2 and Intel 775 systems (though in the later case it is the pushpin style mounting system), a ketchup style packet of TIM, Molex power adapter, instruction pamphlet, anti-vibration mounting brackets and even a very nice wind spoiler that helps direct some of the exhaust air down and over the motherboard. This last item is very intriguing to see since if it works as advertised, it will eliminate one of the biggest problems associated with tower coolers: reduced air movement over the motherboard. A lot of modern, high end motherboard use passive heatsinks that capture the exhaust air from the stock Intel/ AMD downdraft cooler and use this to keep the various chipset and Mosfets, etc from overheating.

In the end we were expecting to see a lower level of quality than most coolers as the HDT-S1283 is a value oriented product, and most manufacturers use “value oriented” to mean cheap. While the external packaging did live up to (or down to depending on your point of view) our lowered expectations, the quality of the internal protection scheme and the cooler’s accessories really were impressive; and this would have so even if this was a $75 limited edition cooler. Considering the fact that this cooler is less than half of this we were bloody well impressed to say the least. Overall, we walked away with very optimistic first impression of this cooler; and more importantly, we started to have a sneaking suspicion that if any company could make a giant killer cooler at such an attractive price it would be Xigmatek.