| Thermalright Silver Arrow CPU Cooler | |
| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Cooling | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Written by David Ramsey | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thursday, 24 February 2011 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Page 5 of 6
Testing and ResultsFor this test, I used the following heat sinks in addition to the Thermalright Silver Arrow:
For heat sinks without a stock fan, I used a Thermalright TR-FDB-12-1600 fan, which puts out 63.7CFM at 28dBa according to Thermalright. This mid-range fan provides good air flow and reasonable noise levels. For "apples to apples" testing, where each heat sink is tested with the same fan, I used a Delta AFC1212D. This high-performance PWM fan is rated at 113CFM at a claimed 46.5dBa at full speed...which means that while it moves quite a bit of air, it's very loud. As I mentioned before, the Silver Arrow has an adjustable clamping system, which I set to the maximum 70 pounds for this test. The Intel Core i7-950 I used in this test runs much hotter than the Core i7-920 I've used previously. At 1.35 volts, with a BCLK of 175Mhz, the 4,025Mhz CPU pumps out enough heat to stress the very best heat sinks. AIDA64 would report throttling once any single core reached 100 degrees Celsius; any throttling resulted in canceling the test and recording a "FAIL". Although this overclocked and overvolted Core i7-950 represents an extreme, these are expensive, high-end heat sinks. The chart below summarizes the results with the stock fans (hotter temperatures towards the top of the chart, and cooler temperatures towards the bottom). The twin-fan coolers have a real advantage here, since their dual fans generally move more air than the stock single fan of any of the other units. Stock Fan Tests
With both of its 140mm fans connected directly to the computer's power supply and running at full speed, the Silver Arrow turns in amazing performance, edged out by less than 1 degree by the Cooler Master V6 GT. The minimal performance difference here is probably due to the V6 GT's high-speed fans, each of which is rated at 90CFM, as compared to the Silver Arrow's 69CFM fans. It's worth noting here that the V6 GT's fans are quite loud at full speed, whereas the Silver Arrow's fans are very quiet. Note the 5.8-degree "break" between the Prolimatech Super Mega and the Coolit Vantage A.L.C., neatly dividing the results into "high performance coolers" and "other coolers". Delta High Speed Fan Tests
Given that the Silver Arrow has four fan mounting positions, the question when using a single fan is where to mount it. I chose the middle position, with the fan mounting to and pulling air through the front set of fins and blowing towards the back of the case. In some cases, replacing a dual-fan cooler's twin fans with a single fan, even a very fast one, doesn't yield the performance improvement you might suspect— note that the Corsair H70 temperatures improve by less than a degree. But the Delta high-speed fan, blowing 113CFM (rated) of air through the fins of the Silver Arrow, drops the temperature by another 6 degrees Celsius over its stock fans. Other coolers improve as well, some (such as the Coolit ECO A.L.C.) substantially. If nothing else this test shows how important fan selection is to any cooler's performance. While this fan enables the Silver Arrow to turn in the best performance I've ever seen from an air cooler, it does so at a significant sonic cost, with a loud whirring whine that most would consider unsuitable for their desktop. So while the Silver Arrow does have its drawbacks (size and price), the payoff is world-beating performance. I'll go into some detail on these tradeoffs in the next section.
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Comments
Not trying to be too nitty here, but the copper alloy referenced for the base material must be C11000, or alloy 110, which is 99.9% pure copper. Probably a typo? But to the nickel plating, I'm wondering, what corrosion? Cathodic? I thought the CPU surface was a non-conductive surface. Other than that, the thermal paste should insulate against what little moisture may be lurking around.
I'll go ahead and guess that the clamping of 40 to 70 pounds you reference is inch-pounds not foot-pounds. This is a pretty large range, even for a high carbon alloy steel, 43%. Normally there is only about a 20% range unless you're discussing non-ferrous alloys, but then the range is even smaller. Nevertheless, in inch-pounds it would be about right for a low-carbon screw, in this case a 3-4mm or #8- #10 diameter.
Wow. That's one huge rad !
But trust me, please, as I work with metals and fasteners every day (except holidays and weekends, and dumb brain fart moments when I should be enjoying the very good work you do in reviewing computer hardware). If you ever need some relevant information on joint design, technology, metallurgy, or pre- or post tensioning advice, please contact me. If I don't have the answer off the top of my head, I have personnel with doctorates in metallurgy and mechanical engineering at my disposal. You will get the answers you may need.
Thanks again for your review.
But I was missing the NH-D14 as main competitor of the Silver Arrow as they are playing in the same league.
But anyway, great review as always
However I already read one or 2 reviews on internet where they compare them and it looks like silver arrow is on pair or beats NH-D14 with ~1-2 degrees...
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"That" is the 800 pound gorilla in the room. It also bodes ill for the people making aftermarket coolers. As usual this was a good look at a nice product that I'll do without as my present Asetek and Corsair H2o coolers do a fine job on my i7's.
And if the first fan is "pull", the second must be, too, since there's not enough room to put both fans in the middle of the cooler.
Since the performance of the cooler was amazing anyway, I didn't worry too much about it.
This is looking like my best option at this point, but I don't want to buy it and then find that I can't mount a trio of corsair dominator sticks on the board.
The NH-D14 has the best mounting system in my opinion.
Regards.
1. $42 shipping was cheapest option from frozencpu.com
2. I large tower cases, installing in multi-SLI MoBos don't work. If mounted in its intended configuration .... blowing to rear, the find hit the GFX Card in PCI-E Slot No.1 .... same thing w/ the Antec Kuhler 620 btw .... that cooler cost me $18 in shipping there and back :). I was able to mount it horizontally (blowing up), while less than ideal, it works ... at $42, I wasn't gonna ship it back.
3. I installed it w/ two fans, bought a 3rd, didn't fit. The fans we got, aren't the fans shown here .... they were an ugly green w/ gray blades (since painted black)
4. Fins stay at pretty much room temperature ...
5. Bought a PYM Fan Cable Splitter (also from forzencpu.com). This one was an Akasa "Smart Cable" model. Last build I bought a different brand, both times had them sleeve it. First builds splitter shorted out my fans ... was replaced with a working one but replacement would not control fan speed. The 2nd one, the Akasa didn't work at all. machine would not boot w/ it connected.
6. As for performance, it's hard to tell as unlike BNR, I don't have lotsa things to swap it out with. Using a i7-2600 in an Asus WS Revolution w/ twin 560 GTX (900 Mhz models). Here's the results (VCore under load in ( ):
Stock 51,53, 53, 51 (1.224) LLC = Auto
4.0 Ghz 52, 54, 55, 52 (1.016-1.024) LLC = Auto
4.2 GHz 54, 56, 57, 55 (1.256 - 1.264) LLC = Auto
4.4 Ghz 56, 60, 60, 67 (1.280 - 1.288) LLC = Auto
4.6 Ghz 62, 66, 68, 65 (1.360 - 1.368) LLC = High
4.8 Ghz 71, 77, 79, 72 LLC = (1.408 - 1.416) Ultra High*
I should note that on many builds I have seen temps drop after a few bits of thermal cycling. Most noticeably, if I set upa desired OC as my target .... then purposely run it at a higher oC to get higher temps, going back to my target now has lower temps. My guess anyway is that the 1st time the TIM hits its highest temps tends to "cure it" a bit. Have seen this on just about every build I have spent a lot of time with.
I may add to this once I get another shot at this. 80C is "my self imposed limit" and unless I can figure out a way to drop voltages a bit, I won't be delving further into bigger OC's.