K9N2 SLI Platinum with Xigmatek Dark Knight S1283V Mounted - w/ Pictures

Question

((I've updated my Temperature results in MY FIFTH POST DOWN; so please refer to the results in that post before jumping to conclusions!))
So.
I had some Credit available at a local Micro Center after returning a couple items to there that didn't work.
I decided to apply this credit to a new Cooler for my Phenom II 940 BE; and I settled on a Xigmatek Dark Knight S1283V.  It is basically the same thing as Xigmatek's HDT-S1283; just with black nickle over its aluminum fins and copper heat pipes.  Read a lot of reviews that seemed to put Xigamtek's HDT model Coolers "on par" with both the TRue120 and OCZ Vendetta.  I settled on the Black Knight primarily because I didn't want one that was all shiny and flashy; and this one supported the "snap on" lever set up of the AM2+ socket; rather then having to removemy Mob and bolting it on.
Got it mounted; though it didn't quite mount the way I had wanted it to; was hoping to have vertical, it so the fan blew through it and out the back of the case, via the case fan on the back.  But it mounts horizontal the AM2 Socket.  So the Fan is flat and blowing downwards.
Anyway.
I am thus far not as impressed as I had hoped.  It does not seem any better then my Stock Cooler; with my Phenom II 940BE on stock settings at 3.0ghz.. 
Idle temps around 44c.
Running Prime95 and it immediately jumped to 55c as soon as the "Torture Test" started, and gradually rose to 64c where its been holding there.  I get the same results from my Stock Cooler. 
This, is with Arctic Silver 5 applied to the base of the block as opposed to the thermal compound that came included with it.
Anyway, here are some pictures of it mounted on my K9N2 SLI Platinum.
Dark Knights Fan is blowing air DOWNwards.
Case Fan immediately to the left of the Dark Knight here, is blowing air out the back of the case.
The Case fan just above that, is blowing air into the case, as my HDD used to be there but no longer is.
The Case fan at the roof, of the case, is also blowing air into the case.
There is a large 120mm fan on the front of the case which is not shown, that is also blowing air into the case.
Left side of the Dark Knight; just barely touches the CIRCU PIPE Heat sink.
Right Side of the Dark Knight, just barely covers DIMM Slot 1.  It pushed my Ram to the side by a couple Milimeters, so I moved them into Dimms slots 3-4.
Perhaps, the rest of my Fans need to be adjusted to work best with this; I am not sure.
But I expected to see at least a difference of 5 - 10 degrees celsius when compared with my stock cooler.  I was, hoping to use this thing to push my chip into a higher Overclock.  As it is, with my stock cooler, I can not overclock much higher then 3.4ghz.  But if this Xigmatek is preforming about the same as my stock cooler, then I am afraid it just won't do for a suitable cooler for overclocking...

Answer 1

The Stock vCore for the chip is 1.350v.
I was able to go as high as 3.5gz with that.  When I pushed to 3.6ghz, I had to push the vCore up to 1.375v.
At 3.7ghz, I had to push the vCore up to 1.4v.. and am now running at 1.450v for 3.8ghz.
This particular chip is claimed to be able to push 4.0ghz at 1.5v; though most people haven't been able to achieve this without Liquid Cooling.  Infact, AMD set a Worlds Record with this chip, pushing it to 6.5ghz under Liquid Nitrogen... They did the same with the PhenomII x3 720BE.
Also; I was using the Stock Cooler on mine at 3.5ghz and was getting similar Temps to what you're getting.   The Stock AMD cooler can't take that chip much pasted the 3.5/3.6 marks, depending on Chip, as bare in mind, not every chip of the same model is the same.  Your 940BE may run differently from mine... 
You're also using a different motherboard; so your Heat Pipes layout and configuration is different from mine; nt sure if this would have much effect on your CPU heat, don't think it should.... But it looks like your Mobo has more room to mount that V1 in a vertical position, with the fan blowing out the rear.  Coolers like mine, can't mount that way.
I honestly believe though, if Xigmatek were able to supply their S1283 series coolers with a mounting bracket that would allow it to mount vertically like that, then it would dramatically improve its performance.
At present, mine is blowing air up, from the Video Cards, through the Cooler, and up towards the fans at the top which pulls it out the case.   My video Cards are pushing 70c under load so I'm already pulling hot air.   I also have two Thermaltake iCage's now, with 120mm Fans on the front, blowing air out the back.   One of those is blowing air directly over the Cooler, and out the rear case fan.... which is why I think if I were able to mount a cooler in a vertical position, the CPU would probably run even cooler.