Xigmatek Dark Knight Review

Results Analysis

Unfortunately for Xigmatek, the Dark Knight failed to make much of an impression in our testing. It was beaten by the similarly sized and priced Gelid Tranquillo, and completely out-classed by larger coolers such as the Thermaltake Frio.

The former was 7˚C cooler in our LGA1155 system, with the Dark Knight managing a delta T of 61˚C. This result left the Dark Knight sitting squarely at the bottom of our cooling table, with only the Intel reference cooler providing poorer cooling.

The situation improved slightly in our Socket AM3 test system; the Dark Knight’s load delta T of 35˚C, was a stonking 30˚C cooler than the reference cooler. This still placed it towards the bottom of our table, though, with eight out of the nine other third party coolers we've tested performing better. The cooler isn’t even particularly quiet under operation, making it look particularly bad value.

Conclusion

These are disappointing results from what looked like a promising cooler. We were hoping we could be onto another low budget star. As it is, though, the Gelid Tranquillo is the better buy for LGA1155 systems, while the Be Quiet! Dark Rock Advanced is worth considering if you can stretch to £40 and have a Socket AM3 motherboard, as it offers superior cooling and is very quiet too.

AMD Socket AM3 Scores

• Cooling
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• -
• -
• 6/10

• Design
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• -
• 7/10

• Value
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• -
• 7/10

• Overall
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• -
• 7/10

Intel LGA1155 Scores

• Cooling
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• -
• 7/10

• Design
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• 8/10

• Value
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• -
• 7/10

• Overall
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• -
• 7/10

Score Guide