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The Prolimatech MK-13 has demonstrated a great deal of potential and we feel that this is likely one of the best after market VGA coolers out there. It’s truly universal design means it can be used with all modern ATI and Nvidia graphics cards, which is great news. The problem with this however is that when compared to purpose built coolers the MK-13 may not be as good. By this we mean if a company was to develop an aftermarket cooler specifically for the Radeon HD 5870 then chances are it would be a better choice. Products that do not feature a universal design are traditionally better equipped to cool the intended product, as they will sport custom VRM cooling for example. The little heatsinks supplied in the MK-13 package are simply inadequate for cooling the VRM of the Radeon HD 5870 and other high-end graphics cards like it. Although they did work, stress temperatures of near 100 degrees are unacceptable, especially when the standard cooler never saw them rise above 51 degrees. Therefore this is something to keep in mind when purchasing the MK-13 and products like it. There was just one other problem we encountered with the MK-13 and that was to do with the mounting design. While it was very easy to install the MK-13 to our Radeon HD 5870 graphics card, we found that the spring loaded screws did not apply enough tension to the mounting bracket. This meant that the heatsink would wriggle around on the GPU and at one point caused the heatsink to break contact with part of the GPU, sending temperatures skywards.  An easy fix was to unscrew the mount and add some washers to take up the slack, and although the card worked perfectly once this had been done, it is not exactly ideal. Also worth mentioning is the fact that the heatsinks do not stick to the VRM circuitry very well, and we did have quite a bit of trouble getting them to stick in place. The only solution here is to use thermal adhesive, but doing so means that the MK-13 is permanently installed. Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the Prolimatech MK-13 is its fan mounting system, that allows for several configurations. This means that there will be at least a few configuration options available to you whether you are using just a single graphics card or running a multi-GPU setup. Although trying out various configurations can become time consuming, it is worth trying to work out what will work best with your setup. Overall the Prolimatech MK-13 is an impressive product, though despite this it does come with a few annoying flaws. That said, the VRM cooling issue that plagues the MK-13 is also a problem that is present on similar coolers, such as the Thermaltake DuOrb Extreme, ISGC-V320, Scythe Musashi and Thermalright T-Rad² to name just a few. Finally, with a suggested retail price of $70 US, we feel that the Prolimatech MK-13 is a little too pricey given competing products are selling for around $50 US. Reviewed By Steven Walton |
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