In recent years, the CPU heatsink market has seen some major changes.  Just a few years ago, the humble heatsink was a single piece of aluminium with fins cut into it - Fast forward a couple of years and heat pipes started to appear, they were widely regarded as a marketing gimmick at the time, but as the technology progressed, we started to see some excellent performers.

One thing that was always a problem with these huge coolers was the price.  As manufacturing processes became more efficient the prices started to drop slowly, but it wasn't until recent months that we have seen genuinely affordable, performance heatsinks - Enter Xigmatek.

To be honest, this time last year, I hadn't heard of Xigmatek, but they have certainly made waves in the enthusiast market of late.  What's so special about Xigmatek coolers then?  Well for starters, they are priced well below the market leaders, and I don't just mean a few $$/££, we are talking up to 30% cheaper.  Xigmatek have also taken a long hard look at the enthusiast market and seen that there were a number of areas that could be targeted and two that spring to mind are the overclocking crowd and at the other end of the spectrum, the silent PC crowd.  Many people fall somewhere in between, so the nice little touches such as anti vibration fan mounts and a good quality fan included are certainly impressive when you look at the price tag.

Today we have Xigmatek's latest incarnation of their highly successful 1284 heatsink, The Achilles S1284C.

Let's have a look at the official specs from the Xigmatek site...