Coolink Silentator CPU Cooler Review

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Coolink Silentator CPU Cooler Review​

Manufacturer Product Page: Coolink - the cooler manufacturer
North American Availability: Soon
Price: $45 MSRP
Warranty Length: 3 years



Just like people have different concerns, needs, wants & desires so do different market niches. Not everyone who is interested in a quieter computer wants to go the water cooling route. For many people they just want a simple, easy setup with little to no maintenance required that makes their computer quiet enough but offers good performance. To many people this means a foray into the fairly intimidating Silent PC arena where marketing buzz words swarm like gadflys. Speaking as an old, old convert to the Church of the Quiet PC I can tell you this: once you head down this path it leads to a lifetime of frustration where “silent” takes on a whole new meaning & “quiet” is never quiet enough!

To satisfy this niche’s rising demands, many relatively unknown companies are now offering low noise CPU cooling solutions. While these companies may not be as well known as Thermaltake, Thermalright or Zalman, they have been working quietly behind the scenes producing many of the products that end up wearing more well known names. One such company is Kolink. Kolink is a cooling specialist that has been making cooling solutions since 1996 and is well known to many industry insiders. It is one thing to say that they have been working behind the scenes since the mid 90’s but its another thing to be able to say that they are the ones who Noctua went to when they needed a factory to build their Ultra-Low-Noise coolers. It wasn’t until 2005 that Kolink decided to branch out and market their own products under their own name. To this end they created Coolink to market their wares in Europe and their stated purpose sums it up nicely when they say “Coolink…. stands for an effective conjunction of no-frills performance, excellent quality and attractive pricing. Coolink - the direct link to affordable high-end cooling!” After a successful European launch, they have now set their sights on the North American marketplace.

Today we will be looking at Coolink’s Silentator CPU cooler. Coolink states that “The Silentator's mission is simple: to cool - and to do it silently!”. Is it building off the well known term “Terminator”? Yes it is, but then again it did wonders for Arnie when he became the “Governator” so why not a “noise terminator”? Since Coolink readily admits that the Silentator is built on the basis of the Nocuta’s NH-U12F, is this just an OEM version of it or is it something all together different? More importantly, is this truly a quiet cooler or is the name “Silentator” just marketing hot air?

 

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Specifications

Specifications

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*Please note that the Unit that HWC recieved is the improved Silentator with 42 Fins giving it over 4000 square cm of surface area.​

 

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Packaging and Accessories

Packaging and Accessories

On first inspection of the box one is left with an extremely positive, almost jovial feeling. The colour scheme of Blue and White with mainly black and white text exudes a sense of well being and calmness. It is like you are looking at a Budhist monk or Zen master when you look at the box. Maybe we are just over personifying it, but one thing is for certain this box’s scheme works. Heck, chances are better than even that I would buy it just for the box it comes in, since good Feng Shui “calming” items are expensive!

While it is nice for an item to create an instant attraction, what is even better is that the fact that the box is crammed with not only the information on its cooling and noise performance but that it also has diagrams that show you its size in all 3 dimensions. This added information makes it very easy to determine if it will fit your motherboard and computer case before buying it. The only minor quibble we had over the information displayed is that it was ALL in metric. Yes metric is the standard here in Canada but honestly when it comes to fans we all think in Cubic Feet/Minute. Having to remember the conversion table in ones head (1m3/h = 0.5885778cfm) can be a little annoying but you can’t blame Coolink for sticking to one standard for displaying their information.

The only annoyances we have with the box’s exterior is the inclusion of a plastic film window and the fact that it has no integrated carry handle. The carrying handle is a minor oversight, and while not a big deal is conspicuous by its absence. The same goes for the thin film window, it is also more a pet peeve than a major flaw. Seeing thin plastic film like you would find on a children’s toy is not something one should find on a serious, yet relatively delicate piece of computer kit. Even worse is the fact that this large window with its thin protective film does severely compromise the box’s protective abilities.

When you actually open the box you are greeted to a very simple and moderately effective packaging scheme. Instead of having foam or even plastic protective container, the Silentator is loosely housed in a thick cardboard three sided container. This makes it very simple to remove the Silentator from box, but it does so at the expense of protection. The fact that it is made of cardboard is not an issue, cardboard is actually just as (if not more) effective at absorbing punishment as plastic.

What is of concern is the fact that the front window side is not protected by a secondary protective layer. The thin film window which we took issue with earlier is all that stands between a sharp object and the Silentator itself. While this combination works well for store shelf sales, where you can easily see any damage to the unit, long distance shipping is a different matter all together. To make this safe for transport a secondary box (preferably filled with Styrofoam chips) is not only recommended but should be considered mandatory.

The accessories that accompany this cooler are of very high quality. You get a tube of TIM, an instruction pamphlet, a long chrome screw driver, 2 additional mounting brackets (with 2 extra strips of vibration dampening material), all the necessary springs & screws and, as an added bonus, an old fashioned pci bracket mounted fan controller was included.

This controller allows you to easily make the Silentator as silent as you wish with just the twist of a knob. This is a very nice bonus if your motherboard is an old one that doesn’t support automatic control of CPU fan speed. Of course in this day and age it is of less importance as most if not all motherboards come with at least some CPU fan speed control. Even though it is less beneficial on newer systems the ability to fine tune the Silentator’s noise level, regardless of thermal load, should make the silent pc crowd happy.

According to Coolink, even though our package held both AM2 and 775 mounting hardware, the actual Silentator will not come with both sets. Hopefully, you will be able to purchase the mounting hardware separately but this will only lessen the sting from the “slap in the face” and not totally remove it. It is one thing to make an Intel or AMD specific cooler, it is another to not include the extra hardware for the various sub types.

Quiet honestly, this is a cooler with MSRP of $45. In this price range we expect to not only get all the mounting hardware we need but also all the hardware as well. Other coolers in this price range included BOTH the AMD mounting hardware and the Intel mounting hardware without having to pay a penny extra.

 

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First Impressions

[FONT=&quot]First Impressions[/FONT]

On first glance one could easily mistake this cooler for a Noctua NH-U12F, or even a Thermalright Ultima 90. In the case of the Noctua NH-U12F this impression is not fleeting as it really does look like one. This is to be expected as the Noctua NH-U12F is made by Coolink's partner company Kolink and Coolink does not hide the fact that the Silentator is a heavily based on it. It is only upon closer examination that a few differences become obvious.

The largest difference is the fan. Unlike the Noctua that uses one of its own ultra high quality fans with their distinctive colour scheme, the Silentator opted for one of their own SWiF fans. With its blue fan and clear frame colour scheme it is just as unique and distinctive as the Noctua but construction wise the two are different as can be. We will cover these differences later in the review but for now lets just say that Noctua made the better choice and leave it at that.

The second difference is not as glaringly obvious but it is actually the more important of the two. Unlike the NH-U12F that has 4 large heatpipes, the Silentator only has 3. Since it is “missing” the 4th heatpipe it can’t truly be considered a “Noctua OEM” rather it is more like a cut down version. One has to wonder how much of an affect this will have on its cooling capabilities.

As mentioned the Silentator is a fairly standard “double 3” heatpipe tower design cooler with a full frame 120mm fan. Some people would call this a 6 heatpipe system but in reality it is really only 3 large “U” shaped heatpipes that start at the top right side of the heatsink, go down and through the copper & aluminum base and then terminates at the top left side of the heatsink.

As with many similarly designed coolers the radiator fins are made of aluminum to help radiate heat, yet keep overall weight to a manageable level. There are 42 of these fins which gives the Silentator heatsink more than 4000 square centimeters of cooling surface area. This number is actually lower than many similarly designed coolers but it is still a respectable number in and of itself. While the fins are tightly packed, Coolink engineer’s have taken a page from other tower heatsinks and have given the fins a textured multi-faceted “face” with an indented center. This approach has been proven to help reduce back pressure allowing for a fan that does not need a high static pressure or high RPMs to keep the air moving efficiently over the fins.

Overall this makes for a quiet, yet efficient thermal design that has been nicely executed by Coolink.

As you can see, the base is even and free of any major tool marks. However there are many minor tool marks that can’t easily be seen but are deep enough to be felt with your fingernail. It is certainly not the best polished base we have seen but it is not the worst either. Overall, the level of quality at this price point was fairly average.

One thing worth mentioning before we continue is the fact that Coolink placed a very sticky warning label on the bottom of the heatsink. Yes we understand this is to help protect it from being scratched in transit but it does mean that you now have to thoroughly clean off all the gunk before you can use it! If you do not do this, the thermal transfer abilities of both the TIM and Silentator itself will be greatly reduced.

 

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Fan Design

FAN DESIGN

This 120mm, 7 bladed fan is rated to spin from 900 to 1600 rpm. At its slowest speed it can move a little over 31.78CFM, while at its top rated speed it can move over 52.97 cubic feet of air per minute. Where the fan does have a clear case, it is puzzling why Coolink decided not to include any LEDS to take advantage of it. It would have added an additional “bling” to an otherwise typical setup and would have made the choice of a clear case more readily understandable.

As for the construction of the fan Coolink opted for one of their own SWiF-1202 double ball bearing 120mm fans. The SWiF stands for "Silent Whisper Fan" and as the name suggests it is designed to be as quiet as possible while still pushing enough air to be effective. This fan is made from clear plastic with blue fan blades and blue rotor housing. This color scheme is certainly not for everyone; however, if this fan is not to your liking the mounting system consisting of two wire brackets makes it extremely easy to replace. One just has to make sure that the replacement fan uses the normal “flange” style mounting bracket holes and not the “tunnel” style.

One interesting thing about this fan is the fact that it uses the older style 3 pin fan header. It is understandable why this was done since it enhances compatibility with older systems but it also limits fan speed regulation to variable voltage only. This is certainly not a big deal, as this fan is easily controlled via voltage changes (as confirmed by the inclusion of the fan voltage regulator).

On the positive side, the fan cable is nice and long and is completely sleeved in a rubber like black material. It is always nice when the manufacturers take the time to do this as it does make for a both a cleaner/neater install while also helping to keep air flow restrictions to a minimum.

Rather that rely on MTBF numbers, an easier and better way to get a “feel” for what the manufacturer thinks is the real length of time a product should last is to simply look at the length of warranty provided. The length of warranty has been calculated to be long enough so that customers feel secure in purchasing it BUT still short enough that it will be “out of warranty” when most fail. Taken for what it's worth, the Silentator comes with a 3 year warranty which is more than what alot of the competition offers.

 

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Installation

Installation

Installation of the Silentator is not a user friendly proposition and it can be fairly “tricky” to install. The installation is a lot easier if you have ever installed a Thermalright Ultima 90 as the mounting hardware is very similar in design yet not as well executed.

As with the Ultima 90, the fan must not be installed on the heatsink when you install it or you will not be able to tighten down the two large spring loaded retaining screws that secure the heatsink to the motherboard. I admit that this issue nearly caught me but luckily I remembered my first Ultima 90 installation and was able to spare myself the ego stripping “2 steps back, 1 step forward” dance that this can cause.

The first part of installation of the Silentator requires you to screw down the retaining brackets and small red washers via the motherboard's CPU heatsink mounting holes in order to attach the backplate. The first screw can be difficult to manage as you have to line up the motherboard and backplate perfectly; this issue is compounded by the fact that rubber washers need to be installed between the two top retaining brackets and the motherboard itself. However, once you have the first screw done it becomes a lot easier to get the rest. Overall it is quirky, but not overly difficult if you take your time and don’t allow yourself to become frustrated. When this is done one simply has to apply TIM to the CPU, place the Silentator in position and screw in the two large spring load screws.

In comparison to the heatsink installation, the fan installation is extremely easy and straightforward. If you are planning on only using the one fan that is included you must make sure that the fan is positioned with the right “face” pointing inwards (on the fan frame are two arrows showing blade rotation and air direction) so that air is blown through the fins and not “sucked” out. The mounting of the fan is accomplished via the wire brackets that run the length of each side of the heatsink in their own little slot. At both ends of the wire bracket there is a short, complex “bend” so that the bend actually fits snuggly into a hole in each of the four corners of the fans case. Since the fan is under continuous tension this snug fit ensures that the fans air goes through the heatsink fins and not just around the edges of the fan’s case.

One interesting thing about this mounting system is that you can in theory mount this cooler with the fan pointing in any direction you choose. You are literally only limited by the space available around the heatsink on your motherboard. For the majority of motherboards on the market you should have no trouble mounting this cooler in any direction you want. The only issue we had with installation has to do with the fact that the heatsink sits very close to the top edge of the motherboard. In all 3 of the 4 possible orientations installing at least one of the two wire retaining brackets would be extremely difficult to install inside a computer case due to lack of room to maneuver, and the 4th orientation (fan near GPU pointing up towards top of case) would be just as hard if two fans were used on the Silentator. It is for this reason we strongly recommend installing the fan before you reinstall the motherboard. It is also worth mentioning that while both wire brackets are the same and therefore there is no left or right bracket to mix up, it is very easy to install the brackets upside down. This of course does “look wrong” but it will still work some extent. This is certainly not a major issue and is really more of an annoyance than anything.

The largest potential negative point about this mounting setup (and one that it shares with the Ultima 90) is that one of the two mounting brackets can touch and short out motherboard capacitors, especially if the capacitors are the older (and thus taller) style. On newer motherboards that use solid capacitors there is usually more than enough room and this should this should not be an issue. If your motherboard makes this an issue, simply repositioning the mounting brackets to the alternate orientation may alleviate the situation.

If your motherboard has capacitors on two sides of the CPU socket, or if your chipset heatsinks don’t allow for the alternate mounting direction you may have problems. Basically if your board uses tall heatsinks and yet has the older style capacitors you may not be able to install the Silentator. Due to this potential issue proper research should be done in making sure that mounting the Silentator is possible on your motherboard.

As a very nice bonus Coolink includes all the necessary hardware to install a second fan. This was especially nice as most companies charge extra for those little wire mounts and strips of rubber. We will show the benefits (if any) of using a 2nd fan in a push/pull setup bring later in this review. Either way this attention to the smaller points like this really shows that Coolink wants this CPU cooler to not only be quiet but be powerful as well.

Also on the positive side, and unlike some tower style cooler the Silentator's height should not be a concern for most cases. However, if your case is like ours and it supports door mounted fans you will find it a tight fit to close the door with these fans installed. When installed in a CoolerMaster CM690 there was not enough room for both as the door fan would have been “too close for comfort”. Equally important is that while it is a wide tower it is tall enough that its width was not quite a concern on either a Gigabyte p35 DS4 or Asus Maximus boards.

While the tower itself did not touch or rub any surrounding parts, the same can not be said for the fan brackets as they did show a tendency to poke things around them. The best example of this touching was with the North Bridge heatsink where the bottom of one the fan brackets actually rests on top it and had to be bent slightly to make it hold that corner of the fan in properly in place. Depending on your motherboard's chipset placement (and / or if you use an aftermarket chipset cooler) this may be a big issue for you; either way this touching does mar an otherwise simple yet elegantly effective fan mounting system.

While the installation of the Silentator is easier than some other CPU cooling solutions we have seen in the past the Silentator’s heatsink installation is not very user friendly and you need to have a lot of experience in installing tower coolers for it to be considered quirky and not a pain in the butt.

Total installation time, including removal of old heatsink TIM was about 12 minutes. If you are not used to this type of installation or do not plan out in advance how you are going to do it you can expect this time to be doubled at the very least.

 

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Subjective Tests

Subjective Tests:

These test are the main tests I do on any aftermarket part that I am planning on using in a build. If they don’t sound or feel "right" I bin them and use alternatives. Whether that means a completely different brand or just another one from a different batch greatly depends on the priorities of the build (i.e. noise vs. performance vs. longevity vs. style vs. cost).


Finger Spin Test:

Just as the name suggests I give the unplugged fan a quick spin with my right hand index finger while holding it vertically in my left. This is done to see how much friction a fan produces (via the length of time it takes to stop and perceived speed at which it rotates); but mainly it is done to feel how well balanced the fan is. If the fan feels unstable then it is most likely unbalanced. This fan may have a drastically reduced life expectancy and may catastrophically fail taking other computer parts with it.

The Silentator’s fan did not produce any of the telltales that occur in poorly made fans (wobble, ticking, clicking, etc). Overall it felt fairly balanced and smooth for a double ball bearing design.


Noise and Vibration:

While holding the heatsink and fan in my left hand, I plug in the fan into a 3 to 4 pin molex adapter and then turn on the computer. This way the fan is running at full speed and I can easily feel for any vibration it creates and listen for any noise. I do this while holding the heatsink in the orientation that it will be when installed. In this instance, I held it vertically.

The SWif 1202 was very quiet and didn’t create many felt vibrations. In my opinion those two pieces of vibration dampening material installed on the heatsink do a very good job of isolating any vibrations created. When installed in a CoolerMaster CM 690 case the Silentator was not audible over any of the Scythe E’s. This is a laudable accomplishment that few CPU coolers we have tested in the past can claim.


Tap Test:

While holding the heatsink and fan in my left had I gently “tap” both the heatsink and then the fan. In the case of the heatsink it allows you to hear and feel how well made it is.

In the Silentator’s heatsink the aluminum fins felt very durable and solid to me. While I am sure that the fins can be damaged, it would take a lot of negligence to necessitate that level of violence.

As for the SWiF 1202, it had very little shaft “slop” or forwards and backwards motion to the fan blade assembly and felt very tight. However, the fan displayed a lot of angular slop when pushed/tapped on only one side of the fan . This combination makes for a fan that as the bearings age and become “looser” has an increased potential to become off balance and even unstable.


Weight and Construction:

This test consists mainly on how it "feels" in your hands.

While nowhere near as heavy as some behemoths that I have used in the past, the Silentator felt fairly light and I would have guessed its weight at about a pound. In reality the Silentator with one fan weighs in at about 640grams, or to put it another way it is about 140grams more than the Intel recommended max weight for Socket 775 CPU coolers. This is not a big deal as the backplate does provide more than enough rigidity to handle the extra stress.


In fact, the Silentator is built like a tank; there is no corner cutting or value orientated construction here. The Coolink engineers went so far as to solder the heatpipes to both the copper base and the fins. Not only does this significantly increase surface contact area (and thus an increase in heat transfer) it provides a lot of extra strength and rigidity to the whole unit. This is not a unit where everything is loosely held together, rather its more like one huge hunk of copper and aluminum that happens to look like a normal tower heatsink.

It is sad to say but the fan itself is another matter all together. The fan looks and feels a bit cheap and so did its clear fan case. In the case of the frame this is simply an allusion as it is just as strong as one would expect it to be, though a couple of LEDs would have made a it look a lot better. After all if you are going to leave the frame of the fan clear it is usually done for a reason. Since no LEDs are included I would say that the clear plastic is cheaper to make than the “coloured” plastic and this was one way Coolink was able to keep costs to a minimum.

Unfortunately the somewhat cheap feeling of the fan blades does not just come from the fact that they are made from a very malleable plastic but also from the fact that the blades themselves are not smooth or “clean”. I am not talking minor imperfections here, rather each and every blade as a very rough finish to it. Luckily the most important “wind” side of the blades are a lot smoother than the backside so air turbulence will be minimal, but the very fact that a fan that looks so unfinished made it past Coolink’s quality control department does not instill confidence in the Silentator fan’s longevity.

While there may be some concerns about the fans long term viability and level of quality, in general Coolink appears to have made more good calls than bad with the Silentator’s construction.

 

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Testing Methodology

Testing Methodology:

All comparison testing was done on a closed case system with an ambient temperature of 15c. Recorded temps were as reported via CoreTemp's "Temp Log". Average load temps were taken after 15 minutes of running Prime95 v25.4 “small fft” and are taken directly from CoreTemps temperature text file. Excel was used to average the results of all cores. Idle temps were taken 15 minutes after Load testing ceased. Motherboard temperatures were recorded using SpeedFan. All SpeedStep technology was disabled in BIOS for all tests. Even though the Silentator includes a manual fan controller it was not used for any of these tests. CPU fan speed control was used, it was set to "voltage only" in the BIOS.

Arctic Cooling MX-2 thermal paste was used for all other coolers during these tests. For the Silentator the TIM that comes standard with it was used unless otherwise noted. Application of all thermal paste was according to the manufacturer’s instructions and allowed to cure for 3 days under moderate to high loads (with periods of low loads) prior to testing. All tests were run 4 times and only best results are represented.

Unlike the Silentator, the Ultima 90 does not come with its own fan. For the results listed in this review it was paired with a single Scythe F 120mm fan. All CPU throtteling technology was disable in the BIOS, however CPU fan speed control was left to “voltage only”.


Notes about Overclocking:

For q6600’s that use 1.31volts I consider 1.45 volts to be the most that I would seriously consider for a moderate-to-long term overclock. Yes you can go much higher but the longevity of the CPU is then called into question. Just as importantly the CPU should max out at LESS than 60c as this is also what I consider the safest, maximum long term overclocking temp. For the purposes of these tests I was willing to overlook temperatures as long as they averaged below 65c and did not peak over 70c. If 70c was displayed for more than 10seconds in CoreTemp all testing was stopped and that test run was considered a fail.

With these two general guidelines I overclocked both systems until either one (or both) of these "rules" was needed to be broken to continue.

Overclocking was accomplished by increasing FSB speed and then Vcore (only if necessary).

Before testing for idle and max temperatures Orthos was run for 1 hour to make sure that it was stable at a given overclock and voltage. If both finished with no errors SuperPi set to 32m was run twice. After the stability testing was accomplished the given system was allowed to sit idle for 30minutes before starting the official tests. IF both of the above stated guidelines were not broken then testing continued with an increased overclock. These steps were then repeated until 1 or both of the general guidelines were broken.

As they have no bearing on these tests the RAM’s voltage and timings are not recorded, the RAM was set to run at or as close to as possible PC-6400 speeds by running various cpu : memory dividers. Please do not consider this a full “how to” review on overclocking or “safe guidelines” for overclocking nor even an indicator on how well a given CPU will overclock. IF you are interested in OC’ing your system, and use these guidelines we at HWC take no responsibility for the results. Bad Things can happen if you are not careful.

Complete Test System:

Processor: Q6600
Motherboard: Gigabyte p35 DS4
Memory: 4GB G.Skill PC2-6400
Graphics card: XFX 7200gt 128mb
Hard Drives: 1x Western Digital Se16 500GB
Power Supply: Seasonic S12 600W
Case: CM 690
Fans: 5 Scythe E fans installed,
Alternate CPU Fans: 1 Noctua NF-P12-1300 (1300 RPM), 2 Scythe F’s (1600 RPM)

 

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Test Results

Stock SWiF Fan Results


Idle Temperatures

As you can see at stock speeds the Silentator was 4°C cooler than stock. It was not as cool as some others mainly due to the fact that the fan itself was spinning very slowly. As CPU speed (and thus heat) increased this situation quickly reversed itself and it was only the Ultmia 90 with double the amount of heatpipes that was able to cool more efficiently at idle.


Average Load Temperatures

Once again at stock speeds the biggest limiting factor was the Silentator’s fan. If I was planning on using the Silentator in a non-Overclocking setup I would certainly disable fan speed control in the BIOS, install the fan controller and rely on it to control fan speed. Once again as overclock increased so too did the Silentator’s performance. Even at full speed this SWiF fan is very quiet.


Alternate Fan Mounting Options


One Noctua NF-P12 Fan Results


Idle Temperatures

Hmm, now that is very interesting. The higher than expected stock temps may not be the fan’s fault at all. I was expecting much better performance gains than 1°C from the use of a Noctua fan! Even in this configuration the Silentator’s heatsink appears to be stuck in first gear at stock speed and is only a slightly better than Intel’s stock cooler. Just as with the SWiF fan installed the temperatures do get MUCH better as thermal loads increase. The Noctua was spinning slightly faster than the SWiF and these extra RPMs more than likely account for the Silentator’s increased performance.


Average Load Temperatures

Even with the Noctua fan the Silentator is not a great cooler at stock. It is apparent that while it is a good choice for overclocking it really shouldn’t be your first choice. This is certainly acceptable as Coolink’s engineers first priority was noise reduction and in this area it really did shine.


Two Scythe F Fans Results


Idle Temperatures

Ah ha! Now we are getting somewhere. These idle temperatures are very nice and an explanation for the Silentaor’s seemingly bizarre temperature results is starting to become clear. Let’s see what its average loads look like before I explain.


Average Load Temperatures

Just as I thought, while still not great at stock these numbers are looking much better. More importantly the reason for this anomalous behavior is now obvious. With anything less than near maximum output from its cooling fan those tightly packed fins just create too much static pressure for one fan to easily overcome. As temperatures go up, so does the RPM’s and at a certain speed point enough air movement is created to overcome the Silentator’s built in “air resistance”. Once this air resistance or static pressure is overcome the Silentator’s heatsink is able to act in a thermally efficient manner. This also explains the sudden and dramatic improvement in its numbers versus other CPU cooler designs at high overclocks. It also is pretty obvious why Coolink will charge you extra for mounting brackets but includes the second fan brackets for free. They may not come out and say it but the Silentator really needs that second fan to be considered both quiet and effective.

 

[AkG]

Value

Value

The term “Value” is such an amorphous term that it truly has different meanings for different people. For some a CPU cooler is only as good as it overclocking potential while for others its is how quiet it does its job; for others still its how effective it is for its cost. We here at Hardware Canucks try to provide as many answers as possible for the term “Value”.

Hopefully by this point in the review people looking at overclock potential and temperatures will have a fairly good idea of what this cooler's Value is. For the “best bang for the buck” crowd we have included a chart below showing how much each 1°C less costs when compared to Intel’s FREE stock cooler. No consideration has been made for noise levels, “looks” or any other extraneous factors; this is just raw performance vs. monetary cost. For any cooler that performs worse than the Intel stock cooler a rating of “FAIL” will be given. For any cooler that has a “Value” of more than $10 per 1°C a rating of “FAIL” will be used in the graph but the chart will list its actual “value”.
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Please note: This chart has be calculated based upon the differences between Intel stock cooler’s average load at its highest OC on a q6600 @3.0GHz versus that of the various after market coolers average load temperatures (in their stock configuration with stock TIM) also on a q6600 @ 3.0GHz.
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All prices are based on either their MSRP (if no e-tailer prices were available at review time) or the online price they sold for at the time of their review. IF a CPU cooler does not include a fan the price of a Scythe F has been included ($12).<o></o>
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To make it as easy as possible for you to modify this ratio we have also included the various coolers temperature difference so that if you do come across one of them on sale you can easily modify its “Value” rating. We here at HWC are in no way saying that this is the definitive answer to “Value”, rather it should be considered another tool to help you make your final decision. After all something is only as “valuable” as what you consider it to be.
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