Xigmatek Loki II Review

Performance Analysis

As our test systems only currently cover LGA2011 and LGA115X, we only have one set of results for the Loki II, which isn't compatible with LGA2011. Despite some considerable air flow, we were quite disappointed with the Loki II's performance in dealing with our Core i7-2600K test CPU. Its delta T of 59°C is a massive 20°C cooler than the Intel reference cooler - clearly the Loki II is £16.99 well spent here. However, it was out-classed by a number of low profile coolers with smaller heatsinks and less powerful fans.


We re-mounted it and applied more of the included thermal paste but got the same result. Suspecting the thermal paste might be a little poor, we applied some third party paste and this knocked 9°C off the load delta T. We're not sure if this was just a bad batch of thermal paste but with only enough for one clean mount, we weren't able to apply it again. Still, you'd be well-advised to use a high quality thermal paste and not that included with the Loki II. Noise-wise, the 92mm fan does get pretty noisy under load and would likely be the noisiest component in your case. This is dealing with a 4.4GHz overclocked quad-core CPU of course, although the Deepcool GAMMAXX S40's larger fan did help this similarly-priced cooler down to lower noise levels, while it also beat the Loki II by 5°C, even when we used third party thermal paste.

Conclusion

The thermal paste issue is a strange one but thankfully, this only costs a matter of pounds and any self-respecting PC enthusiast should have a syringe of the stuff kicking around as a backup anyway. However, this does mean that the super-low price tag isn't quite as low as it might have been. That said, if you're going to be dealing with a stock speed CPU, or simply a less power-hungry one than our Core i7-2600K, then you'll probably be fine with the included thermal paste anyway.

Given the choice, we'd likely opt for Deepcool's GAMMAXX S40, which only costs a couple of pounds more. It's better in the cooling department but is also noticeably larger. However, any cooler under £20 is more concerned with providing a step up from a generic or reference cooler than competing with the big guns and the Loki II both massively outperforms the Intel reference cooler and is much quieter than it too, which is all you can really ask of a £17 cooler.