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Prolimatech Armageddon - good bang for a buck

by on30 September 2010

Index

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[UPDATE]: Tested with two fans at readers' request
Prolimatech Armageddon is one of the best cooling solutions around, and you might've noticed that we’ve been including it in our comparison tables for quite some time. Still, despite us using it as a nice reference point for testing other CPU coolers, we haven’t had the chance to talk more about it. Armageddon hit the shelves sometime in March 2010 and has racked up quite an impressive number of awards.  

After the very popular Megahalem coolers, where Prolimatech truly shone, Armageddon came as reinforcement in a fight against the ever-improving competition in the high-end segment.
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The cooler spells quality design all over; slim design in 14cm format and the efficiency it shows while running with low-RPM fans. The heatsink measures (L)144mm X (W)50mm X (H)160.3mm and weighs in at 750g. Armageddon supports Intel sockets 1156 and 1366 but you can mount it on AMD’s AM2/AM2+/AM3 sockets as well thanks to the included mechanism, which you can check out here.

The cooler does not come with fans, but it does feature two 14cm fan brackets so setting up the fans will be a breeze. Prolimatech suggests mounting 14cm 800~1200RPM fans with a 57 CFM airflow, but note that the fan frame must be thinner than 1.5mm.

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For instance, ArmaClip will not take Scythe’s Kaze Maru 140mm case fan, but it will take Thermalright’s TR-TY-140 fan, as you can see from the picture below.

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In most cases, though dependent on the motherboard design, Armageddon will take both 14cm fans in a push-pull configuration (it’s also possible to mount two 12cm fans, thanks to the optional brackets that can be ordered here). The cooler’s slim design definitely helps with any potential conflicts with memory modules, for instance.

Prolimatech has a nice compatibility list that you might want to look at and make sure that your rig will support it. We tested Armageddon on our EVGA X58 FTW3 motherboard and it fit like a glove. The cooler can be rotated in a way where the cooler is parallel with or perpendicular to the case’s rear panel.

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The cooler features six 6mm heatpipes made of nickel plated copper.

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The tall heatsink has 44 aluminum fins with about 2mm distance between each.
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The picture above shows that the heatsink is basically two vertical parts joined together. Another nice touch, which isn’t quite clear from the pictures, gets evident when the cooler is viewed from above - the heatpipes form perfectly straight lines, and this does much to improve cooling.

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Mounting Armageddon is pretty easy but you can always refer to the installation manual. The included backplate and mounting  mechanism will fit only on Sockets 1156 and 1366, but you can purchase additional AMD socket mounting mechanisms.

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We did our tests in Corsair Obsidian 800D case with three reference fans running at 900RPM (room temperature about 22°C). Our weapons of choice were EVGA’s X58 FTW3 motherboard and Core i7 930 CPU. The temperatures were measured at reference 2.9GHz as well as after our overclock (we pushed the CPU to 3.6GHz).

The heatsink measures (L)144mm X (W)50mm X (H)160.3mm, so you might experience difficulties when mounting it on certain motherboards that might have tall and/or wide chipset cooling solutions.

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Armageddon’s slim design allows for mounting two 14cm fans, but we tested it with only one fan as you can see from the picture below. We’re talking about Thermalright’s TR-TY 140 fan (900~1300RPM) which ended up being enough for excellent Armageddon performance. The case’s rear panel houses a 14cm fan that pushes the air out, so we’ve got ourselves a neat push-pull setup here.

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We used Prime95 (Small FFT) to put a 100% load on all Core i7 930’s cores, so bear in mind that we’re talking about a scenario that will most probably never happen. We measured temperatures on all four cores and put average values in the tables. We used Gelid’s GC Extreme paste. 

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After overclocking the CPU to 3.6MHz, Armageddon took the top spot. Indeed, it did so well that we’ll keep on using it as our reference point.

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After one of our users requested it, we tested Prolimatech Armageddon cooler once again, but this time with two 14cm fans. We’ve already mentioned that the 14cm, 900 RPM fan on the case’s rear panel does great to improve cooling and ultimately, adding another fan on the cooler made little difference. We strapped Armageddon with CoolerMaster A14025-10CB-3BN-F1 (0.14 amps at 12V, 1080/1100RPM), and you can see it on the picture below. The fan shouldn’t make more than 17dBA noise when running at maximum RPM, and we can confirm that as the rig ran still pretty silent after adding the fan.

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Prolimatech Armageddon is an excellent cooling solution that is currently one of the best socket 1366/1156 coolers money can buy. Armageddon’s pricing has dropped significantly since it has been launched, and it’s currently more affordable than many similarly-performing solutions on the market.

We received Armageddon from our friends in Caseking.de, where it’s currently priced at €49.90 (without fans), here, but you can also find interesting deals with one or both fans from €54.90 to €64.90. This is a great offer if you bear in mind that the same cooler cost €59.90 upon launch.

Our test showed that Armageddon really runs like a charm with only one 14cm fan, offering silence and great performance at the same time. The finishing touches are excellent as well and this cooler will definitely stick around in our arsenal.  

It’s really a no brainer – such performance at such a price really deserves to be crowned. So, if you’re looking for a high-end CPU cooler, there’s absolutely no reason why Prolimatech Armageddon shouldn’t be in your top list – in our book, it certainly is.

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Last modified on 30 September 2010
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