Prolimatech has been on a roll ever since they came into existence just 2 years ago. Their first product, the Megahalems, was an instant hit in the enthusiast crowd, as it provided some of the best results of any air-cooled heatsink. Their next product was less exciting as it was more of a revision than an entirely new product.

The Mega Shadow was a shadow chrome version of the Megahalems that provided no performance gains while fetching quite a high price premium. The Mega Shadow was merely a show piece for diehard fans and while it did look the part, we failed to get excited about it. Then finally, mid way through 2009 the next Prolimatech product was launched.

This new product was a VGA cooler named “MK-13”, which seemed a bit drab when compared to the names they came up with for their CPU coolers. The MK-13 was a serious VGA cooler and worked wonders with GPU temperatures of the Radeon HD 5870. However while the GPU cooling performance was phenomenal, the cooler was still unfortunately a step back when compared to the AMD reference cooler, due to its inadequate VRM cooling.

That being the case, we concluded with the statements that the Prolimatech MK-13 demonstrated a great deal of potential and while we feel that this is likely one of the best after market VGA coolers out there, it still has one serious flaw and that is VRM cooling. Since then Prolimatech has done nothing to improve the VRM cooling of the MK-13 or to develop a special Radeon HD 5870 version.

Rather, it appears they have been working on another product instead, a product now known as Armageddon. Prolimatech are going back to their bread and butter this time round, as the Armageddon is a high-end CPU air-cooler.

The Armageddon is designed to be a slim line, dare I say it, “compact” version of the Megahalems and Mega Shadow products. Still, I do feel a little silly using the words slim or compact when talking about the Armageddon, as it really is anything but. This massive heatsink is designed to accommodate a pair of 140mm fans, so do not expect to be installing it in too many compact MicroATX cases.

So when compared to the Megahalems and Mega Shadow heatsinks the Armageddon is indeed slim, but when compared to a typical heatsink it’s not very slim at all. The idea behind the slim design, and again we are using the term loosely, is to help improve compatibility issues. When using the Megahalems we often found that the heatsink would conflict with the memory modules, particularly when using a pair of 120mm fans.

It is important to keep in mind that the fans themselves are 25mm wide and if you are using a pair of them, which many users are, this increases the width of the already fat Megahalems heatsink by 69%, to 125mm wide. That is like taking a 120mm fan and sticking it directly over the CPU, this is how much surface area the Megahalems takes up, and then on top of that it is 159mm tall.

The slimmer design of the Armageddon should help improve compatibility with most motherboards, though users should also take into consideration that it is 14mm longer. All up this means that the Armageddon weighs in at just 40 grams less than the Megahalems, which is a 5% weight saving.

In terms of actual heatsink design the Armageddon and Megahalems are a lot alike in many ways, while they are very different in a number of ways also. Both heatsinks feature exactly the same base, Prolimatech looked to have nailed this first time round and they are not messing with this crucial part of the design.

Both heatsinks also feature two separate towers of fins, which extract heat from a set of six 6mm heatpipes. Each series of fins measures 50mm wide by 70mm long and is made up of 44 individual aluminum fins.

However the heatpipe orientation is quite different, as the Armageddon runs its pipes horizontally throughout the fins, rather than stacked on the ends like the Megahalems. This should have a negative impact on air-flow through the heatsink, so it will be interesting to see what kind of outcome this has on performance.

Although the Armageddon comes in fancy looking retail packaging with a price tag of roughly $70 US, it does not come with any fans. This makes the Armageddon around $10 US more than the Megahalems, while it is roughly $8 US cheaper than the Mega Shadow. However once the cost of the 140mm fans is factored in, the Armageddon does become quite expensive, with fans costing upwards of $10 US each, some costing more than $20 US each.

Furthermore, the Armageddon only supports the LGA1156 and LGA1366 platforms out of the box. The mounting bracket does support LGA775 sockets but Prolimatech says the heasinks design makes it incompatible with most boards and therefore officially support does not exist. AMD users have to pay for an optional mounting kit to support the AM2/AM2+/AM3 platforms. Currently Prolimatech is asking around $10 US for the AMD mounting kit, making this a less attractive solution for such users.

In fact, the method used by Prolimatech is actually very intelligent, and it allows for very quick and easy installation on the LGA1156 and LGA1366 platforms. Sadly its only short coming is its inability to support AMD platforms without having to purchase an optional kit.

Rather than supply three individual mounting kits, Prolimatech has managed to design a single kit that can support all three Intel platforms. The installation method is the same as that used by previous Prolimatech CPU coolers. Although this method appears very fiddly at first, the design actually works rather well and is quite easy to work with.

There are three different sets of mounting holes on the bracket and depending on the platform you are using you will only use one of these sets. For testing purposes we first installed the Armageddon on an LGA775 (not officially supported) motherboard, then an LGA1156 board, and finally an LGA1366 board, without a problem. Again the installation process for each platform is exactly the same, with the exception of the mounting holes, which are in a slightly different position for each platform.

Installing the fan or fans on the Armageddon is quite a simple process, and Prolimatech has used clips much like you will find with most heatsinks. There are two sets of clips included, allowing for a pair of 140mm fans to be attached to the heatsink. The fans must be installed once the heatsink has been secured to the motherboard, as they will block access to the screws.

When testing the coolers we remount them onto the CPU three times and record the idle/load data. Each time the thermal paste is wiped clean from both the CPU and the heatsinks base. The best result is displayed rather than the average of all the recorded data.

The heatsinks that come with their own fan are naturally tested with that particular fan. The heatsinks that do not come with a fan are all tested with the same fan, that fan being the Thermalright TR-1212PSL which operates at between 1000 ~ 1800 RPM.

For testing purposes we lock the fan in at 1500 RPM and monitor this speed throughout the testing process. Heatsinks that take 140mm fans the Xigmatek XLF-F1453 (supplied and recommended by Prolimatech) is used and this fan is rated at just 1000 RPM. At this speed the fan moves 63.5 CFM while working at a whisper quiet 16 dBA. These fans are currently retailing for roughly $13 US at the time of writing this.

Because we record the temperatures using EVEREST Ultimate Edition, the same version is used every time with the same motherboard using the exact same BIOS revision. Furthermore, the same Intel Core i7 965 Extreme Edition processor overclocked to 3.70GHz is also used each time. Also please note that all tests have been conducted using vertical motherboard orientation, positioned upright in a traditional tower computer case. Furthermore the heatsinks that feature heatpipe technology are positioned so that heatpipes span horizontally.

Hardware - Intel Core i7 965 Extreme Edition (Overclocked @ 3.70GHz) - x3 2GB G.Skill DDR3 PC3-12800 (CAS 9-9-9-24) - Seagate 500GB 7200-RPM (Serial ATA300) - Radeon HD 5870 (1GB) - Asus P6T Deluxe (Intel X58) Software - Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit) - ATI Catalyst 10.3

The idle results are quite impressive, with the Prolimatech Armageddon keeping the overclocked Core i7 at a very cool 25 degrees at idle with a single 140mm fan. Adding a second fan improved the idle temperature by a degree, dropping the temperature to 24 degrees, which is on par with the best idle results we have been able to record when using high-end air-coolers and is just a few degrees above the ambient room temperature.

When under full load temperatures do rise considerably, and we found that the Prolimatech Armageddon struggled with a single 140mm fan, producing a disappointing load temp of 71 degrees. The Megahalems with a single 120mm fan was 6 degrees cooler. Although the 120mm fan did make considerably more noise when compared to the 140mm fan, this is still a disappointing result.

However, when we added a second 140mm fan the load temperature dropped by 10 degrees, which was most unexpected. The Megahalems on the other hand only dropped 6 degrees when adding a second 120mm fan. This meant that when comparing the dual fan configurations the Megahalems was just 2 degrees cooler. It is also worth noting that the Armageddon was able to match the Venomous-X when comparing dual fan results.

For the purpose of taking a few photos we used the MSI P55-GD65 motherboard (LGA1156) and found that the Armageddon was a very tight fit. Had there been another millimeter in it this cooler would not be compatible with the P55-GD65, at least in the desired orientation. The problem here is that one of the heatpipes was pushed up hard against the cooling featured on this motherboard.

The Megahalems on the other hand was a much more snug fit on this particular motherboard, so really it does depend on the design of the particular board that you are using. Therefore we do not believe that the Armageddon is an improvement in terms of compatibility.

Although our testing did reveal that the Armageddon is a few degrees warmer than the Megahalems when comparing them with our overclocked Core i7 processor, the fact that we were using different fans here has to be taken into account. The 120mm fan(s) used for testing heatsinks that support this fan size operates at 1500 RPM and as such generates considerably more noise than the 140mm fan(s) that operate at just 1000 RPM.

Had we been able to compare the heatsinks using fans operating at the same RPM it is very likely that we would have seen no performance difference between the Armageddon and Megahalems heatsinks. Something that we did notice when testing the Armageddon is that with a single 140mm low RPM fan the results were quite unimpressive. However when adding a second fan we saw the load temperature drop by a whopping 10 degrees.

The biggest problem we have with the Armageddon is the price, which sees it retailing for roughly $10 US more than the Megahalems. Although it does have the nice shadow chrome finish, recommending the more expensive Armageddon is not easy. Still, for those that want a sharp looking heatsink that accepts 140mm fans the Armageddon is an attractive option, even if it does cost $70 US.

Without a doubt the key strengths of the Prolimatech Armageddon is its ability to support dual 140mm fans for ultra quiet operation, while still maintaining very low operating temperatures. Furthermore, the easy installation process is a huge plus for the Armageddon, as is the products appearance which will no doubt draw in more than a few enthusiasts. With that all said, we would like to make one request and that is for Prolimatech to provide an AMD version of their heatsinks at no added cost.