Hardware Bistro

Product: Gladiator Max
Manufacturer: OCZ
Supplied by: OCZ
Price: 50USD/RM170
Launch Date: Sep 2008

 

OCZ is absolutely famous with their memory, power supply, SSD but in fact they do produce quite number of CPU cooling products as well such as Cryo-Z (phase cooling), HF-MK1 (waterblock), Vanquisher, Vendetta and Gladiator (CPU coolers). Today let us go through together on OCZ Gladiator Max which is a 120mm CPU cooler and comes with 4 80mm direct heatpipe.

 

Company Profile

OCZ Technology Group, a member of JEDEC, designs, develops, and manufactures ground-breaking, high performance memory and premium computer components. OCZ products are the first choice for users needing high-reliability, enthusiast-grade solutions. OCZ continually invests in R&D to push the limits of performance, speed, and value for consumers, system integrators, and OEM clients.

At OCZ we have one primary goal, and it is to make sure that every customer is 110% satisfied. Every employee at OCZ is dedicated to accomplishing this goal. Our engineers are constantly developing the fastest and best performing products.

 

Features

- H.D.T (heat-pipe direct touch)
- 4 pure copper wall heat pipe allow superior heat transfer
- Anti-vibration rubber design for noise reduction
- Light weight aluminum fins
- 120mm highly efficient PWM fan
- Ultra-quiet 19-26dBA
- Easy to install; push pin & AMD tool-less clip

 

Specifications

Sockets AMD 754/755/939/940/AM2, Intel LGA775*
Adaptor brackets for socket LGA1366 SOLD SEPARATELY
4 Pure Copper heat pipes for superior heat dissipation
Pure Aluminum alloy fins for ultimate durability
2-Year warranty
Size: 120mm x 120mm x 25mm
Weight: 780g (with fan)
Rated Voltage: 12V DC
Fan Speed: 800-1500RPM
Noise Level: 19.6-26.4 dBA
Bearing type: rifle
Life Expectancy: 40,000 hours
Connector: 4 pin with PWM
Heatsink: (L) 63 x (W) 120 x (H) 165mm

 

Package & Contents

 

OCZ Gladiator Max is packed nicely inside a blue cardboard with a small transparent window. Specifications and features of OCZ Gladiator Max are stated on the packaging in detail such as heat-pipe direct touch, anti-vibration rubber design, tool-less installation methods, ultra-quiet, light weight, 4 copper wall heat pipes and etc.

 

OCZ Gladiator Max is wrapped securely by two thick foams while fan, accessories and user's manual are slotted in between the foams. The complete packages of OCZ Gladiator Max are heatsink, 120mm fan, user's manual, thermal compound, anti-vibration rubber connectors, Intel push-pin and AMD single tool-less clip.

 

OCZ Gladiator Max comes with push-pin brackets for Intel sockets while single tool-less metal clip for AMD sockets; exactly same with Intel & AMD stock coolers. Four unique rubber fan mounting connectors are included to reduce the operating vibration noise and a bag of thermal compound is included. User's manual of OCZ Gladiator Max is a black & white manual with diagrams to simplify the installation guides. 

 

A Closer Look: OCZ Gladiator Max

 

OCZ CPU coolers are pretty new for most of us but in fact they have stepped in their CPU cooling quite some time ago; just not that aggressive like other OCZ divisions. Currently OCZ is having five CPU coolers; 3 x 92mm coolers and 2 x 120mm coolers. OCZ Gladiator Max is the highest end product among the rest where it comes with four 80mm heat pipes with direct touch technology (HDT), 120mm cooling fan and so on.

 

OCZ Gladiator Max comes with a unique shape where it looks like a stealth bomber for us and hopefully it comes with such outstanding performance too. Same with other performance coolers, OCZ Gladiator Max is made by aluminum fins + copper heat pipes. All these aluminum fins are stacked together neatly but with certain of distance so that the noise can be minimized with lower pressure static.

 

In term of the heat pipe, OCZ Gladiator Max is equipped by copper heat pipes and the most fascinating point is the 80mm diameter heat pipe. With such powerful horsepower, OCZ Gladiator Max is definitely a monster and a threat for other brands. Anyway OCZ Gladiator Max is equipped by four copper heat pipes where all of them are placed in a series of pattern to maximize the heat dissipation.

 

Heat pipe direct touch technology (H.D.T) is one of the latest technologies in cooling sector where the heat pipes are no longer sandwiched by bottom and top metals. All the heat pipes are directly contacted with the processor for enhancing its cooling efficient by reducing another layer of heat conduction. All the heat pipes are well made as all of them are integrated perfectly with the base.

 

OCZ Gladiator Max is a tower cooler and in order to strengthen its structure, OCZ has added six aluminum bars in between the base and the aluminum fins; very caring consideration. Although six additional bars are added in between the base and aluminum fins but OCZ is still able to simplify the installation method; push-pin for Intel sockets while single clip for AMD sockets.

 

Since Intel is dominating the major market, let us show you the way to secure the Intel mounting bracket on the OCZ Gladiator Max. Two push-pin brackets have to be installed on the base by using two screws. The push-pin of OCZ Gladiator Max is exactly same with Intel stock cooler which is the simplest way to mount a cooler on the motherboard firmly and easily.

 

As we mentioned before, OCZ Gladiator Max comes with 120mm cooling fan while the standard Gladiator comes with 90mm cooling fan. This 120mm cooling fan of OCZ Gladiator Max is a brushless DC fan which is a long lasting 12V DC fan with 0.15A. The fan speed and noise of this 120mm cooling fan are 800 - 1500RPM and 19.6 - 26.4dBA; pretty standard for a 120mm fan.

 

Unlike other tower coolers, OCZ Gladiator Max comes with unique fan mounting method where four rubber connectors will be used to secure the fan on the OCZ Gladiator Max. This method is not only able to secure the fan on the cooler firmly but also reduce the operating vibration noise. However the disadvantage is hard to remove the fan out from the cooler especially if you have small case with space constraint.

 

Installation, Testing & Performance

 

After we have gone through all the theory lessons about OCZ Gladiator Max, now let us focus on the its installation. Since there are quite number of Intel fans out there, we have picked our Intel LGA775 test bed. Basically the pre-installation method is extremely simple; just fasten the push-pin clips on OCZ Gladiator Max and following by the 120mm cooling fan with four rubber fan mounts.

 

Before we install the OCZ Gladiator Max on our test bed, we have installed it on a bare motherboard to ensure its compatibility. Overall we found no compatible issue on OCZ Gladiator Max and the installation method is pretty straightforward by using push-pin mounting method. However as we mentioned before the OCZ Gladiator Max fan mounting method isn't that ideal, we hope OCZ can make it more user friendly for the next successors.

 

Test Bed:

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8300 @ 2.83GHz
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3 (Gigabyte G31M-ES2L)
Heatsink: OCZ Gladiator Max
Memory: Kingston HyperX DDR2 8500
Hard Drive: 250GB 7200RPM 8MB Seagate, OCZ 30GB Agility
Graphic Card: Galaxy GeForce GTX260+
Casing: In Win Maelstrom
PSU: Aerocool V12XT-800
Router: TRENDnet TEW-639GR
Optical Drive: DVD RW
Monitor: Dell 22" Wide Screen LCD
Speaker: Edifier R501
Mouse: SteelSeries Ikari Laser
Mouse Pad: SteelSeries QcK+
HeadSet: SteelSeries 3H
Operating System: Microsoft XP Pro SP2/Vista Home Premium
Ambient Temperature: 27 Degree Celsius

Here are the tested results of OCZ Gladiator Max and based on the results that we have obtained, basically OCZ Gladiator Max is doing fairly good where it is able to keep up with other world class CPU cooler. Furthermore another advantage of OCZ Gladiator Max is its operating noise where the noise isn't audible at all even at full load; good for 24/7 users. 

 

Verdicts

Although OCZ is quite new in this CPU cooling industry but frankly to say they did a pretty good job for their Gladiator Max; we don't really care whether it is fully or semi designed by OCZ, as long as it can benefit end user then OCZ has done their job. The MSRP for OCZ Gladiator Max is quite reasonable compare with other high end coolers but it is still expensive for most of the end users. Anyway OCZ provides 2 year warranty for Gladiator Max which is a pretty good deal for such high end product. If you are still looking for a hardcore cooler then OCZ Gladiator Max isn't a bad choice at all.

 

Pros:

+ 4x80mm copper heat pipes
+ Solid structure
+ Quiet operating
+ Anti-vibration fan mounts
+ Simple installation methods
+ 2 year warranty

Cons:

- Fan mounting method can be further improved
- LGA1366 mounting kit is not included at default

 

Thanks to OCZ for providing this sample for us to review.

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