Conclusion:

With the HAVIK 140, NZXT has proven to me that they can take their skills and expertise in the PC gaming world and apply them to just about any component that they want. The cooling performance was top notch, the noise production was just about non-existent, and the installation was fairly easy. There isn't much else you can ask for when it comes to a CPU cooler.



The main issue I had with the cooler was that interference with other system components seems very probably in many builds. The test system lost the use of its first PCI Express expansion slot and the first DDR3 memory slot! While the shear size of the cooler may eliminate it from consideration by many users, there is always the smaller HAVIK 120 cooler to consider.

A search of Bigbruin.com's shopping pages finds that Amazon.com sells the NZXT HAVIK 140 for about $60 (US). While definitely a premium price for a CPU cooler, many of the other high end air coolers cost about the same these days.

The performance is superb, but the need to investigate interference issues on a system by system basis keeps me from going to the Highly Recommended award. In the end it does earn the "Recommended" award for the way it could tame the processor's heat, and it earns the "Whisper Quiet" award for doing so with just about zero noise.



Pros:

» Excellent cooling performance
» Great choice for overclocking
» Easy installation
» Extremely low noise operation - with one or two fans
» Universal installation hardware included

Cons:

» Two fans isn't much better than one fan
» Interference with other system components seems highly likely
   » It blocked first PCI Express expansion slot on test system
   » With both fans installed, it blocked first memory slot and made second one a tight fit

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