Xigmatek Dark Knight SD1283 Night Hawk Edition CPU cooler

The fifty-two fins, the three 8mm heat pipes and the aluminium base are all sprayed with ceramic thermal coating that leaves the cooler with a textured, flat black appearance like I have yet to see on any other cooler. This is what leads to the connection to "stealth technology".

From the side of the cooler you can see the center section is closed off while both the leading and trailing edges of the fins are left to allow a bit more air to "suck" into the cooler. It also allows for a bit of blow-by in the outlet of the cooler, but if you were to add a second fan that is negated.

From the top there is no mistaking this is a Balder cooler with the distinct shape of the fins. To tell you the truth, I'm not really sure which I like better, flat black or shiny nickel plating. The texture of the cooler will show scratches as it leaves whatever drug on it behind, as I found out with its use. So be careful what you may accidentally touch this cooler with.

After the cooler is sprayed it gets the base milled to remove the excess from disrupting the H.D.T. design of this base. For shipping purposes there is a sticker to protect the base that must be removed prior to its installation.

Since the valleys and gaps of this base are wider at the sides and really only about two-thirds of the heat pipes make full width contact to the IHS, you don't want to put the TIM on the CPU, but rather on each of the flat pipes, that way you don't "lose" TIM in all the gaps.

Here is the fan that is tasked with pushing air through the ceramic coated fins. This fan has a black frame and seven blades and the frame holds four white LEDs. This fan is PWM controlled and has a 4-pin connector to plug into the motherboard.

The fan fully covers the stack of fins. In fact, it hangs below and stands proud of the top of the DK Night Hawk Edition cooler. The focuses more of the fans air flow path on to the fins taking full advantage of the near 90 CFM this fan provides.

With the addition of the fan we have now jumped to a 77mm thickness of this cooler. If you plan to add another fan, you will take this measurement to 104mm. To be honest, seeing the cooler from this angle, I would have appreciated a solid black fan frame more than this translucent one supplied.