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Prolimatech Megahalems LGA 775 and LGA 1366 Cooler

Prolimatech may be a new name to many computer hardware cooling enthusiasts. It is a new company with a lofty goal. Prolimatech claims to have built a CPU cooler worthy of taking on the King of the Hill in what it calls a Megahalems. We see if that is so on a new LGA 1366 test setup.

Introduction

Being the new kid in the neighborhood is never easy. Having no reputation to rely on, you’re forced to prove yourself to each and every customer and under no circumstances can you have a letdown in areas like customer service that the big boys can sustain. No, being the new kid is never easy. Prolimatech finds itself in just that position. Established in 2008, they are a very young company based in Taiwan. Even looking at their product page shows just how new they are. With only one product to speak of, the Megahalems CPU cooler, most people would disregard this company as too young to be worth their time. So can a new company break on to the scene and challenge the status quo? Taking on the likes of Zalman, Thermaltake, and Thermalright is no easy feat but it is one that Prolimatech is ready for.

Today we are going to look at their flagship cooler, the Megahalems. As the name implies it is designed for the newest CPUs from Intel and it intends to do the job better than any of its competitors. Bold claims from a new company. Can the Megahalems perform better than the established TRUE and do it at an affordable price? Many have tried, all have failed. Let’s find out shall we.

System Setup

All testing of the Prolimatech Megahalems cooler will occur on our brand new test bed. Consisting of the GIGABYTE X58-Extreme motherboard, six gigabytes of Corsair DDR3 RAM, paired with the Intel Core i7 920 processor. With four cores and a total of eight threads expect to see lots of heat. The video card of choice is the NVIDIA 9500 GT thanks to its low heat output and silent fan.

Test Methods

CPU

In keeping with the spirit of the [H] we are once again doing hardware heat measurment. This means drilling a very small path into an expensive CPU to place our thermocouple in. This is by far the best way to test coolers and the only way here at the [H].

Temperatures for the CPU will continue to be measured using our Sperry Digital 4 Point thermometer.

GPU

For this article the GPU will be kept at stock speed to keep any excess heat away from the CPU that could impact the results. In 2D mode the 9500 GT generates very little heat and to further isolate it from the rest of the system we will install it in the secondary PCIE slot.

Thermal Paste

Noctua's NT-H1 thermal paste was selected as the paste of choice for a few key reasons. Firstly, the thermal paste has been shown to provide excellent thermal conductivity allowing the heat sinks to better do their job. Secondly, there is no observed curing time. That is, performance does not get any better over time. Any curing time could have introduced variables into the equation causing at best dubious results and at worst unreliable ones. Lastly, because we have a special CPU on our hands it requires a compound that is more viscous so not to seep into the channel and run off.

Temperatures

Ambient temperature will be kept at 25C for the duration of the tests and measured with a MicroTemp EXP non-contact infrared thermometer and cross referenced with the Sperry Digital 4 Point thermometer. Any variance greater then 0.2C will halt the testing until temperatures return within spec for fifteen minutes.

Idle

Idle temperatures will be recorded after a fifteen minute period of inactivity. Any fluctuation during the last sixty seconds will reset the timer for an additional five minutes.

Load

Load temperatures will be recorded after a fifteen minute period of 100% load. To obtain this load we will be using Prime95 v25.3 set to blend mode. In this way we can heat up the CPU as well as the memory controller which is now integrated into the die. Any fluctuation during the last sixty seconds will reset the timer for an additional five minutes.

Sound

Sound levels will be measured with a Reliability Direct AR824 sound meter from a distance of four feet away. With everything turned off and the room completely silent the meter registered a sound level of 38dB(A). This is a very quiet room where a simple pin drop could be heard. All sound measurements are recorded in the very late evening to further reduce any ambient noise.