Red Scorpion activated!!

After a month of purchasing this awesome CPU cooler from a fellow forumer, finally I have my time to install it into my PC and give it a run. I ordered this Xigmatek Red Scorpion together with a 120mm fan. However, he seems to forget about my 120mm fan and end up have to install my RS 1st while waiting for the fan.



I've been busy for the whole month working and have to let this scorpion stayed in its box. Last tuesday evening, I decided to clean my casing and install it. After weeks of sleeping, finally the scorpion has awaken. Before this I thought of waiting for my fan and install them together, however I can wait no longer and tempted to install it right away!

Here goes the procedure. As usual, I will clean the dust in my casing and the filter mesh in the front panel before proceeding to install the cooler. The first step is to remove the front panel. Instructions on how to remove the front panel and metal plates can refer my previous post here.


A few tools that i prepared this time including cloth, old tooth brush, brush, screwdrivers and a pair of pliers.

Using pliers will cause scratch on the metal surface. After experiencing a rust due to the clean up last time, I used a piece of folded paper to protect the metal surface from scratches.

The front metal bay covers are removed and placed aside, waiting to be clean and washed.

Then, using a screwdriver, I slowly open up the metal pins to take out the main filter inside.

After removing the plastic over, walah.. revealing the dirty front panel filter. Without it, all these dust will accumulate inside my casing.

All the filters are collected, washed and left aside to dry while I continue with my other work. The next thing to do is to swap the location of my casing fans. What I planned to do is to use 2 fans as intake and 1 fan as exhaust. But because I have only 2 fans now and waiting for the other one to arrive, I have no choice but to continue my existing layout which is 1 intake 1 exhaust. The problem now is, which fan I should put at the rear and which at the front?



Before this, my stock CM 120mm casing fan is located as the intake and the Xiggy LED fan as the exhaust. I wanna try swapping both fans to see any effect to the case air flow so I decided to use the lower CFM CM fan as the exhaust. This setup will be temporary until I get my new fan. Then I will mod my casing's front bay to accommodate this extra fan. Worklog will update soon after I mod it.

After removing the rear fan, it is time to change my CPU cooler. 1st of all, I have to wake up the sleeping Red Scorpion in the box. It has been sleeping for a month and it is time to wake up!! The package includes an orange 120mm fan, the cooler, push pins, thermal paste, 5 anti-vibration rubber screw (got 1 extra =P), AM2 clip.

Click below for specification

Xigmatek Red Scorpion Simplified Specification

Xigmatek Red Scorpion Features

• H.D.T. (Heat-pipe direct touch) technology
• Anti-vibration rubber design
• Transparent fan with colorful LED lights
• Particular spoiler design
• 3pcs Φ8mm high performance U type heat-pipes
• Light weight
• High performance & easy installation
• 120mm highly efficient PWM fan
• 3 in 1 application: LGA775 push-pin/K8 & AM2 tool-less clip.

CAC-SXHH3-U03 Specifications

• Product Name: Red Scorpion S1283
• Product Number: CAC-SXHH3-U03
• Outside Dimension (W) x (H) x (D) mm 120 x 50 x 159
• Heat Sink Material: Aluminum Alloy
• Fan Dimension (W) x (H) x (D) mm 120 x 120 x 25
• Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) Fan
  • Voltage Rating (V) 12V
  • Speed (R.P.M.) 1000~2200 R.P.M.
  • Bearing Type Rifle Bearing
  • Air Flow (CFM) 72.1~99.6 CFM
  • Air Pressure (mm H2O) 2.6~4.8 mm H2O
  • Life Expectancy (hrs) 50,000 hrs
  • Noise Level (dB) 20~32 dBA
  • Connector 4 Pin with PWM
  • Weight (g) 600g (w/fan)

First of all, remove the stock Intel HSF by turning the push pin using a screwdriver as shown in picture. Remove all the 4 push pins and slowly pull it out with force.


After removing the stock HSF, I can see the thermal paste applied on it. Carefully clean off the thermal paste before applying the new one. I dont have any paste remover or nail polisher so I just clean it with tissue paper. Wanna try and see the effect without using TP remover.


After cleaning the TP, I took the chance to have a shot of my processor, which is a Intel C2D E7400 E0 stepping. Currently OC-ed to 3.2Ghz and will pump it higher after I get everything stabilize..

After cleaning the TP, I have to assemble my cooler into shape by screwing the push pin plates into the main cooler. Then I have to remove the protection sticker at the base of the cooler. The base is not perfectly flat and there's sticky residues from the protection sticker, which disturbs me alot. Tried to clean off the residue but scared to scratch the base. Further lapping is needed to flatten surface to a mirror finish but I dare not do so without further learning. So for the mean time I will just use it temporarily and see how it goes with the temperature.


I applied the TIM provided on the processor because I don't have other thermal paste to use. I realise that this TIM provided by Xigmatek will corrode the copper base slowly, hence I will just use it temporarily until I get myself a Tuniq TX-2. I think I applied too much paste on my proc surface, my bad my bad. After mounting the cooler by pushing all 4 pins, I attached the 120mm orange fan to the cooler with the anti-vibration screws provided.

The HSF fits nicely on my motherboard because my northbridge cooler height is not too tall. Some motherboard are not able to fit such big cooler. Another one I'm worried of is my casing. My casing has about 16cm of extra height to accommodate this cooler. Xigmatek RS itself is almost 159mm high and I'm afraid I'm unable to close my side acrylic panel later on. However, everything's fine after i try to close my casing. The cooler fit just nice in a CM Elite 333 casing.



After finish mounting the mighty scorpion, the next thing to do will be arranging all the messy worms, i.e. the cables, time for cable management. My casing is not meant for doing cable management, but I will try to keep the cables together and allow maximum air flow.

After doing some simple cable management, everything is good to go for a test run later.

After closing the side panel and connecting all the cables. My PC is good to go for the first test run. Results later.

The Red Scorpy looks great in my casing and looks best in dark. Have a look!!

Unfortunately, after having a test run, I found out that one of my core temperature sensor is stuck at 40°C and never go below that. While the other core temperature seems normal to me idling at 33°C. I still wonder y this happen, is it due to the thermal place I applied too much affected the sensor? Anyway, it wont do any harm because I'm still able to read temperatures above 40°C

The temperature at load doesn't seem attractive even thou it has dropped 10°C compared to the stock cooler. I expect something more like maybe below 55°C? I suspect the thermal paste thickness is affecting the efficiency of heat transfer. Besides, using push pins has lower pressure on the processor hence less contact. I think things might improved IF I:-

• lap the copper base
• change the thermal paste to Tuniq TX-2 and apply it evenly and nicely
• use a back mount bracket
• increase the CFM of the fan
• increase the air flow especially the exhaust

I will try to improve the overall performance of this cooler before I continue pumping the speed to 3.6Ghz.

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Summary of temperatures:
Latest
Idle: 33-35°C
Load: 58-60°C

Before
Idle: 39-40°C
Load: 68-70°C

Improvements planned for future upgrade:

1. get another 120mm fan and Tuniq TX-2
2. mod the casing to accommodate the additional fan (current casing only allow 2 max)
3. improve casing air flow
4. further modding if got time and cash