Arctic Cooling NV Silencer 5 GPU Cooler Review!

[News Writer]

With GPUs producing so much heat, it is inevitable that third-party GPU coolers are becoming more and more popular. However, some GPU coolers sound like jet engines at full blast! Can we still get good cooling without inducing hearing loss?

Today, we take a close look at the new Arctic Cooling NV Silencer 5 GPU cooler for NVIDIA GeForce cards! Let's see if this GPU cooler actually lives up to its name!

Link : Arctic Cooling NV Silencer 5 GPU Cooler Review!

[Maximus_Detritus]

PsY, you cant remove your graphics card??

[PsYkHoTiK]

Now I managed to remove it...

[Random Element]

Great review.

Glad you went to all the trouble of looking at the copper plate properly. So it turns out that the plate is made from separate parts and not just one piece of cooper....mmmmm......very interesting.

[JayN1]

I cant help to notice that its a faulty method youve been using to compare the stock cooler and the NV Silencer 5.

Besides the wrong method of calculating delta T, youve also made a mistake as 57 - 28 = 29, not 31.

The correct method of finding the difference between the two coolers would be

31 + 53 = 84 and

28 + 57 = 85

Which means the difference is 1 degree, not 9.

The difference in idle state is obviously 3 degrees as 57 - 54 = 3

I would use a similar method to calculate load difference.

34 + 66 = 100 and

28 + 78 = 106

the difference is 6 degrees and not 18

and the difference at full load is 8 degrees.

The other method is simply wrong and doesnt give a good comparison between the two coolers.

[JayN1]

As an example of why your method is wrong, lets say temperatures idle was

40 and 60 = 20 for the stock, and

30 and 50 = 20 for the silencer

Difference is 0. Which means they cool equally well? - Not!

It is logical that the silencer in my example is 10 degrees cooler in both results, yet the difference with your method would be zero (0).

[Chai]

The calcuation was a mistake. We will append it ASAP. Thanks for notifying.

But as for your method, I can't see how that is right.

In the most ideal room temperature, it should be constant, and never change because room temperature should be controlled. But since we don't have that sort of facility, we need to measure the ambient temperature changes.

Assuming that NV Silencer 5 is 10C than stock:

40 and 60 = 20 for the stock, and

30 and 50 = 20 for the silencer

That is impossible. Air cooling depends 100% on the ambient temperature. If the ambient temperature is 10C cooler, the GPU temperature should be 10C cooler too, assuming there is no other factors. Don't forget, the best air cooler can do is to cool down to room temperature, never lower than room temperature because it's not possible, which is why we calculate the delta between the room temperature and the GPU temperature.

[JayN1]

I see. You learn something new every day. I didnt know that a component (gfx, cpu) inside the case never can go below ambient. (not sarcastic)

[Olle P]

Originally Posted by JayN1

... youve also made a mistake as 57 - 28 = 29, not 31.

I agree with this one mistakte, but then...

Originally Posted by JayN1

The correct method of finding the difference between the two coolers would be
31 + 53 = 84 and
28 + 57 = 85
Which means the difference is 1 degree, not 9.

Huh? Adding T(ambient) to T(GPU), what's the logic behind that?

Originally Posted by JayN1

The other method is simply wrong and doesnt give a good comparison between the two coolers.

It isn't wrong, it just doesn't provide the entire truth.

My objections/question to the article:
1) Room temperature (air temperature into the computer) wasn't recorded.
2) How was "ambient" temperature recorded?
"All of the temperatures were obtained using the GeForce 6800 GT's on-die thermal sensor."
This one shouldn't be able to measure ambient temperature, so my guess is that the motherboard sensor was used. That sensor isn't in the path of airflow to the GPU cooler.

Now, assuming room temperature was about constant, within +-1 degree, for all measurements the one conclusion one can draw is that the VGA Silencer is better at cooling the GPU with that (and similar) hardware setup(s).

If we also assume that the motherboard was used for measuring ambient temperature we can see that the VGA Silencer "steal" cool air that would otherwise have been used to cool the CPU, thus increasing the temperature in the upper part of the cabinet (as can be seen in the "ambient" readings). That ambient reading is totally useless to compare dT since it doesn't measure what goes into the fan, but rather what comes out (of the stock cooler)!
I bet my hat that the CPU temperature was higher with the VGA Silencer than with the stock graphics cooler!

Therefore the correct conclusions, given that my assumptions above are true, are:
- The VGA Silencer is very good at cooling the GPU.
- It does so by reducing cooling capacity for the CPU.
- Make sure you have a sufficient airflow around the CPU cooler if you install a VGA Silencer!

Cheers
Olle

[Chai]

I think an external thermometer was used to measure the ambient temperature. I might be wrong.