I don’t know about you, but Armageddon excited
As brands go, Prolimatech is a new one. The company has only been around since 2008, after all, and it offers a bare handful of products. But the company was founded by people who clearly know a lot about CPU cooling, as it’s accrued considerable cred in just a couple of years. Its best-known cooler, the Megahalems, was designed for overclocked 1366 chips. We told Prolimatech about our new Socket 1156 cooling test bed, and the company sent over a newer cooler, ominously named Armageddon.
The Armageddon doesn’t come cheap, and the Vortex 14cm fans cost an extra $14 each, but the performance speaks for itself.
At 5.6 inches wide by 2 inches thick by 6.3 inches tall, the Armageddon is wider but slimmer than our champion air cooler, the CM Hyper 212+. While the Hyper has four direct-contact copper heat pipes, the Armageddon’s six heat pipes run through a more standard heat exchanger and up through a stack of heat-dissipation fins. The Armageddon’s mounting system is a bit complex—requiring a backplate, three retention bars, four bolts, four o-rings, four double-headed thumbscrews, four nuts, and two spring screws. But the end result is a stable, solid install with no give and no potential pressure- or torque-related failure points.
The Armageddon supports up to two fans, either 12cm or 14cm, but preferably the latter. In an unusual move, the cooler doesn’t ship with any fans, though Prolimatech shipped us two of its 14cm, 1,000rpm Vortex fans. It’s not that the Armageddon is intended to be fanless—Prolimatech gives you the freedom to add whichever fans you want, preferably its own. We used both Vortex fans to test the Armageddon in push/pull configuration. In the interest of fairness, we added another fan to the Cooler Master 212+, too—we had a spare 212+ around, so we borrowed one of its CM fans.
With two 14cm fans in push/pull configuration, the Armageddon trounced the Hyper by 6.5 C—oddly, using two of the Hyper’s stock fans instead of one barely helped the Cooler Master heatsink at all. In mounting-bracket security, looks, and two-fan performance, the Armageddon surpasses our champion. But the Prolimatech cooler costs $65 without fans. Add $28 for the two fans we tested it with, and you’re looking at more than $90 for a CPU cooler. Value-for-dollar, you still can’t beat the Cooler Master 212+. But the Armageddon is a powerful and worthy cooler with a satisfyingly solid mounting mechanism, quiet fans (sold separately), and a lot of oomph.
Prolimatech Armageddon
A Bang
Powerful and quiet cooling in push/pull with recommended fans; fantastic fan clips; solid mounting bracket.
A Whimper
Pricey; fans solid separately.
via:
Prolimatech Armageddon Review
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