Weekend Non Gym Session 21/06/2009

Weekend Non Gym Session 21/06/2009

I woke up at around 8:30 am today despite of sleeping at 2:30 am, I will probably sleep early tonight to make up for that lost time. My dad recently bought a new exercise bike and I took for a whirl this morning.

Here are the stats for the exercise:

5 mins on the exercise bike @ resistance level = 2
40 mins on the exercise bike @ resistance level = 5 (max = 8)
* Resulted in 426 calories burned and 18.70km cycled.

I found that having an exercise bike at home is very convenient as I do not need to spend time traveling to the gym. I plan to have my own gym set one day when I owned my house / apartment.

Also last week, I have further spent more money buying stuff from LYN forumers.

Here are the items I purchased last week:

1. a.) Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War 1 The Complete Collection (front shot)


1. b.) Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War 1 The Complete Collection (back shot)

*Bought from loongking of LYN for RM120

2. a.) Xigmatek Battle Axe box


2. b.) Xigmatek Battle Axe cooler by itself

*Bought form lingloong of LowYat Net for RM158 (including shipping)

I have also did a very simple review on the Xigmatek Battle Axe GPU Cooler and here it is:

Early Saturday morning dated 20/06/2009, I managed to replace the GPU cooler for my old Zotac Geforce 8800GT.

1. The GPU cooler itself


2. Before replacing the GPU cooler


The entire ordeal took around 45 mins to an hour. This is because the instructions were quite small (with multiple languages). It was quite intuitive for me as I have done this every now and then.

1. Xigmatek Battle Axe with my Zotac Geforce 8800GT (overview shoot)


2. Xigmatek Battle Axe with my Zotac Geforce 8800GT (side shoot)


3. Xigmatek Battle Axe with my Zotac Geforce 8800GT in my old PC

*As you can see, it takes around 2.5 slots or more.

The difference of the idle temperature between the Zalman cooler and Xigmatek cooler was around 6-8c (with both running at full speed).

Xigmatek cooler @ full speed is a lot quieter than Zalman cooler @ full speed.

Previously with Zalman cooler, it was around =56-60c (idle)

Now with Xigmatek cooler = 50-52c (idle)
Tested with Street Fighter 4 benchmark = 60-61c (load)

Please not that this was tested in a room without air conditioning, will update results when the aircon is switch on later.

I would not be able to test the load temperature as my old PC has no games in it at all.

Pros:
1. Silent (even at fullspeed)
2. Fans can be replaced if needed be.
3. Quite easy to fit in
4. Wide compatibility
5. Good availability

Cons:
1. Takes up more than 2 slots
2. Instructions not as clear as the Zalman counterpart

I would recommend this to anyone who are quite annoyed with the heat and noise generated from their stock coolers and finally I'll give this cooler a rating of 8.5 out of 10.