Hardware Bistro

Product: Skalli
Manufacturer: Titan
Supplied by: Titan
Price: 39USD/RM132
Launch Date: NA

 

CPU cooler is one of the common hardware when people are planning to upgrade their PC besides HDD and DIMM as lowering down the CPU temperature will ensure system as reliable as possible. Today let us have a quick look on Titan Skalli CPU cooler which is pretty similar with what we have reviewed previously; Buffalo.

 

Company Profile

TITAN Technology Limited was established in Taiwan by a group of progressive and experienced engineers in their respective fields. Since our establishment with over 16 years of manufacturing experience with high quality cooling devices for various kinds of PCs, we have successfully gained worldwide recognition for our innovative designs.

TITAN is headquartered in Taiwan and has its own two factories, total approximate 20,000 square meters. Both are located in Guang Dong- China, China. There are around 1200 employees, which provide combined efforts a production capacity of output 1.2 million units per month.

 

Features

- Heat pipe direct contact technology: dual 8mm U-shaped heat pipes maximize heat
dissipating efficiency
- A 10 cm noiseless fan: provide comprehensive cooling and a silent environment
- PWM function: intelligent fan controller provides the excellent cooling and
reduces rumble generated from CPU at the same time
- High compatibility: support Intel LGA 1366/ LGA 1156/ LGA 775 and AMD AM3/
AM2+/AM2/K8 mounts

 

Specifications

Package & Contents

 

Titan Skalli is packed with an interesting semi transparent packaging box. Overall the outer packaging is pretty informative with the explanation about heat pipe H.D.C technology, PWM function, multi support clip-design and 10cm noiseless fan. However we still prefer a more plain packaging so that these messages can be delivered more clearly and neatly.

 

Besides the outer cardboard box, Titan Skalli is also packed with another plastic container which is able to protect the cooler pretty well. Other bundled accessories for Titan Skalli are AMD mounting clip, Intel mounting clips, thermal compound and a user's manual.

 

A Closer Look on Titan Skalli

 

As we mentioned above, Titan Skalli is pretty similar with Buffalo cooler that we have reviewed previously where they could be made by the same manufacturer; anyway this is not that important as long as Titan Skalli is able to perform. The overall dimension and weight of Titan Skalli are 110 x 95 x 152 mm and 500 grams which is ideal for space constraint system since it will not create much incompatibility issue.

 

Same with other mainstream CPU coolers, Titan Skalli is constructed by aluminum fins, copper base and copper heat pipes. Although Titan Skalli is a mid-size CPU cooler but it still stacked with plenty of aluminum fins to maximize its cooling performance. The 100mm fan can be detached from the heatsink by unfastening the fan clips which are pre-integrated on the heatsink.

 

Unlike Buffalo cooler, Titan Skalli is equipped with dual 80mm heat pipes rather than dual 60mm heat pipes; eventually the product cost will be increased but the performance will be enhanced as well. The heat pipes of Titan Skalli are U-shaped copper heat pipes and the top portion of these heat pipes are covered by a nickel cap; for better understanding, we have removed the cap which is fastened on the heat pipe.

 

Another obvious advantage of Titan Skalli over Buffalo cooler is this H.D.C (heat pipe direct touch) where the heat could be transferred from the processor to the aluminum in more efficient way. However we found that finishing for the Titan Skalli's base is not that fine so hopefully Titan will make some improvement over the next batch of product as uneven surface will directly impact the cooling performance.

 

In term of socket supporting, Titan Skalli is a universal CPU cooler where it can support not only those older sockets such as Intel LGA775, AMD AM3/AM2+/AM2/940 but also Intel LGA1156 and LGA1366; another advantage over Buffalo cooler. Regardless of the socket type, Titan Skalli is using the simplest installation mounting method which is identical with the stock cooler; push-pin for Intel sockets while clip for AMD socket.

 

For the cooling fan, Titan has chosen a 100mm cooling fan to cool down this beast which is a 12V 0.14A DC fan. This 100mm fan is a PWM fan where it will spin accordingly to the CPU loading but the disadvantage is it is hard to get a replacement for such 100mm fan. Anyway the overall spec of this fan is 25 ~ 47 CFM airflow, 800 ~ 1500 RPM fan speed and 15.3 ~ 29 dBA noise.

 

As we know Titan Skalli is a single fan mid-size cooler but actually it can support dual fans as fan mounting holes are prepared for another side of the aluminum fins. However the second set of fan clip is not bundled so some modification is needed for dual fan setup. In order to lower down the operating vibration noise, some rubber pads are affixed between the fan and heatsink.

 

Installation, Testing & Performance

We have chosen an Intel LGA775 system for testing out the capability of Titan Skalli. The installation is extremely simple since Titan Skalli is using the standard stock cooler' push-pins and such mid-size cooler will not cause any incompatibility issue. Overall we are pretty happy with the installation method of Titan Skalli as those giant coolers which require back plate are pretty annoying if the case doesn't come with pre-cut back plate hole.

Anyway we have installed Titan Skalli inside our Maelstorm and due to the spacious of case and slim size of Titan Skalli, we didn't encounter any issue at all. Removing Titan Skalli from the system is pretty simple as well where these push-pins just need to be turned counter-clockwise direction to release the lock.

 

Test Bed:

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8300 @ 2.83GHz
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3 (Gigabyte G31M-ES2L)
Heatsink: Titan Skalli
Memory: Kingston HyperX DDR2 8500
Hard Drive: 250GB 7200RPM 8MB Seagate
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 performance results of Titan Skalli. Obviously Titan Skalli is not able to beat those giant tower CPU coolers but in the same range of CPU cooler, Titan Skalli basically is performing pretty well especially with its H.D.C. For better comparison, it is good for us to compare Titan Skalli with Buffalo cooler since they are pretty same in term of every aspects but Titan Skalli comes with 8mm heat pipe and H.D.C. In short Titan Skalli is able to outperform Buffalo in both idle and full load tests with some minor improvement.

In term of noise, Titan Skalli is pretty average comparing with other coolers; neither too load nor too silent. Since Titan Skalli comes with PWM fan so we don't foresee any noise issue with this cooler unless the system is fully stressed all the time where we don't think it is possible.

 

Verdicts

Overall Titan Skalli is another great mid-size CPU cooler with decent performance. The light weight and slim dimension of Titan Skalli is definitely good for those who do not own a spacious case and the simplest installation method is another advantage especially for newbie. 39USD MSRP is still reasonable for such great product and if you are looking such mid-size cooler with decent performance then Titan Skalli is not bad choice at all and it is still quite rare to have such mid-size cooler with H.D.C technology.

 

Pros:

+ Universal cooler; supporting multi sockets
+ Decent performance
+ Comes with PWM fan
+ H.D.C technology
+ Simplest installation method
+ Mid-size & light weight 

Cons:

- Harder to get 100mm fan for replacement/upgrade

 

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

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