Product: Hedgehog 238M
Manufacturer: Kanie	BUY ME!
Homepage : www.kanie.com	£34.99 / $50.56 from our Online Store

Right, I wish to make it clear to our committed (literally) readers that we are in no way responsible for the dross that has been produced in the last few articles. It appears that someone, probably small, furry and going by the name "review monkey", tampered with our pharmacological stores. The result was a narcoleptic fit that has lasted two weeks! Frankly, we're extremely lucky to be alive but I think that our would-be assassin will soon wish he were not....I need men and fresh horses, we ride tonight.

Once we were sedated, the little fuzz ball took it upon himself to see if he could tarnish our glittering name, through mundane and soulless writing. You have obviously noticed the pitifully dull reviews that have been churned out recently. You may have even thought you were on just another hardware site, such was the blandness of style. Yes, we take full responsibility for these heinous crimes since they took place beneath the Chillblast emblem, but that doesn't mean we agree with them. Damn that monkey! He pulled a cunning stunt. Or is that a spoonerism?

Well, we are back (albeit with cracking headaches -headaches caused by crack) and ready to buss some caps in mammalian ass. We got on the phone and after the mandatory call to er.... our friend....we.....erm......started blazing and within a few hours had to find a new "friend" cause we had run out of ....damn this is tricky....product. Once we felt a bit more like our old selves, we got on the phone again and sent out a plea to all manufacturers to furnish us with their finest wares so that we may, once again, bring joy to the world or sell the samples to fuel our lifestyle, one of the two.

The first crew to respond to our heartfelt plea were the Kanie caners (allegedly) who decided that redress was due and a top quality cooler should be sent, at light speed, to the Chillblast cave (like the Bat cave but a little more retro and more crack pipes on the ground). Joy filled us when the Fedex guy descended into our lair. It has been so long that since we've seen that guy that we'd forgotten who he was and nearly beat him to death with the news otter. Only his inhuman screams of "but I've got a hedgehog" snapped us back to relative sanity. Any man worth his salt has a mammal secreted about his person, as the test porpoise will testify, so the man was safe. We toasted our new friend with our special liquid mix and when we managed to revive the poor lad 4 hours later, he revealed that he did not, in reality, possess a spiny friend! I don't need to tell you of the horror that ensued but let's just say I wouldn't be eating at Mickey D's for a period of time.

Quite by chance, I tripped over the box he was delivering and remembered that we were due a cooler. Imagine my surprise when I unwrapped a Hedgehog. I felt slightly sick for a few minutes but felt better: I realised we never really liked the delivery guy anyway. On with the show ppl.

First impression of the magnificent (did we like it?) Kanie Hedgehog is mmmmcopper. I think we need to have a re-think on how easily we're seduced by any pure copper heatsink, but like magpies, we are attracted to shiny things. It is a sexy looking little number that comes in kit form. DOH! you mean we have to engage cerebral matter to get it going? Double DOH!! Luckily, it was a simple enough task to put on the clip, place the metal things on top of the unit and screw the fan on top. Nice 'n easy team. Let's view the beast and then let's check out the heatsink.

Look at that shiny copper mmmmmm. OK, the base appears to be made from one piece of copper and has "spikes" in the same way as the Swiftech MC-462 as opposed to "blades" like the Coolermaster EP5-6I11.

The aluminium shroud at the top of the sink increases the effect of the air by forcing it to travel lower down the fins, thus removing more heat. You can just see the clip on the left hand side which is a basic single attachment affair. You can see it better in this next shot of the fins and clip.

The clip has a thin thumb plate on top of it but no where to insert a screwdriver head.

The base of the unit is polished to a high shine and adds to the appeal.

Finally a view of the Hedgehog next to the Coolermaster EP5-6I11.

Time for some dodgy lighting effects.

The heatsink is substantially smaller than the Coolermaster but makes up for it with the superior fan.

Test Rig

Our highly scientific approach tends to be compromised by a number of factors - the first being, we don't have a scientific approach. Our aim is to provide a real world test, to simulate the experience that you would have if you had bought these heatsinks. Therefore, we will take measurements from the onboard temp gauge under the cpu and decibel readings but these are not under lab conditions.

The ambient room temperature was kept at 22C +/- 1C (ta BlitZ), if this changed we stopped testing until it had returned to this base level.

Installation

We stopped momentarily to give thanks to the Lord (name of our street dealer) because our little spiny chum came TIC less. Little woohoo, everyone. The next job was to clean and prepare the core for installation and once this was sorted, we were ready to spank the beast. 20 mins and one sore-arsed warthog later, we were ready to rock. 10 mins later we finished our little jam session and were ready to roll. 5 mins later, blazing away to our hearts content, we were ready to ok, ok I'll cut to the chase. Let's seat that puppy.

The rear clip is a bit of a pain. You need to push it down with a screwdriver (danger) or finger to get it to attach properly. You can't just lift the front to force the back down as with some other clips. Once seated, it was a simple matter to use the thumb plate and the amount of pressure required was surprisingly low. The whole procedure was quick and relatively easy, so a thumbs up for the clippage. To remove the clip is just as simple and the thumb plate is a real help, allowing you to move it outward as you press down. The Neng cooler we tested nearly became the last one, as it was almost impossible to remove. For this reason, we decided to add in a bit about removal.

Noise

We tested with the stock fan and also the ear drums' enemy, high speed Delta kid.

No shock result for this, we have seen it a hundred times before but it doesn't make the level any easier to tolerate. How does it sound with it's own fan? Check it.

Ah, that is more like it. The fan is running at 5,300 rpm and is very quiet, I am happy to have this in my work PC.

Testing

The opponent for Delta kid and stock Kanie is the overclocking champ, your friend and mine, the Global Win CAK 38. I do not expect this to be pretty but the Hedgehog heatsink is an all copper affair and as such cannot compete in the stock category. So spaketh the Lord (you know who I mean).

In true Chillblast style, we have binned the CPU heating results. It would require our re-testing all the coolers we have done so far and really, that is far too much work for a bunch of whacked-out idiots. So, we return to the full load (well 92% load) reading taken after 30 mins of Seti and idle 10 mins of inactivity after boot.

The first test we will put the coolers through is the stock speed of 700 Mhz (7*100) @ 1.6V. Wind up the boys and let 'em loose cap'n.

Did ya see how fast the CAK went? It looks ominous already even for the child of Delta who is lagging by 2*C which, in theory could be cancelled out by our margin of error, but in reality we can only go on the numbers and they say CAK CAK CAK. A bit like a slow machine gun really. Stock Kanie looks out of it's league.

Crack the whip and don't spare the horses, next stop - 900 Mhz (9*100) @ 1.775V.

A savage 4*C has been ripped from the Deltoid Hedgehog at idle with the load gap static. The stock Kanie is not doing too badly under load but 5*C is a big difference.

One change of mares later, we embark on the last leg of our night mission with the goal in sight - 945 Mhz (9*105) @ the max voltage on our Abit of 1.85V.

The relative figures are identical to those at 900 Mhz. The winner is obviously the CAK 38, but the margin by which it retained it's crown is the real shock. Even the addition of the Delta could not increase the hedgehog's competitiveness, it cannot reduce the CAK lead to less than 2*C.

We felt another test would be in order and we wanted to run it at the top temperature (Norberto Fontana, big up yourself). We took a temperature reading 1 minute after shutting down Seti to see how much heat could be dissipated.

The Delta shifts heat 50% faster than the stock fan.

Conclusion

I feel very disappointed by the performance of the Hedgehog 238M. It is made entirely from copper and you would expect it to be able to hold it's own in the overclocking race. It's own fan is quiet but correspondingly impotent. The Delta makes a huge difference but it still cannot keep up with the powerful GW CAK. I think this is down to the size of the sink which is remarkably small. I liked the clip, but there is also a link between pressure and performance, with more being better.

Overall, this is an average unit which, when using its stock fan, is the equivalent of the substantially cheaper Coolermaster EP5-6I11. If you want to strap a Delta on, go for a Thermalright SK-06 the CAK over the Kanie. A Delta is all about performance so you might as well maximise this and not go for the Kanie Hedgehog 238M.

If it were a lot cheaper, I would encourage people to use it as a good stock cooler, but the nature of the beast means that it will always be sold at a premium. It looks good, comes highly recommended, but doesn't carry out it's intended task efficiently and that has to be the bottom line.

The final ChillBlast rating is *******

Kanie's site can be found at www.kanie.com

BUY ME! £34.99 / $50.56 from our Online Store

Cheers to those comely souls at Bacata, you know who you are (I hope).

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