Cooling: Silencer 4 ULTRA TCL - Temperatures
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Initially, I thought this wouldn't cool very well compared to other solutions, and Arctic Cooling's own graphs backed me up. The heatsink is made out of a solid piece of aluminum. If there were some copper or other material that conducted heat better, then the cooler would perform better. To measure the temperatures I used the CompuNurse Sensor. You can pick one up for $15. It will be more accurate than the motherboard readings.
At stock speed it did a decent job of cooling. While under load is did climb a little higher than one would hope, it still kept the CPU cool enough for daily operation. The 44 degrees it reached is below the throttling limit. While it is better to run the CPU cooler than hotter, the temperatures are nothing to worry about yet.
I bumped up the CPU speed to roughly 3GHz. I ran the tests again and this time the temperatures rose a lot. At idle I got a little higher, but once I put it under load the temperatures really climbed. It toped off at 52 degrees. I checked for throttling, and there was none. While this temperature isn’t too hot as far as performance, it isn’t healthy to run at all the time. Remember, this is a Northwood; I would be afraid to run a Prescott with this cooler.
Conclusion
Arctic Cooling’s Super Silent 4 Ultra TC L does what it is meant to do. It does a decent job cooling a processor at stock speeds. When it needs to cool a moderately overclocked CPU is passes, but with a very low grade. This CPU cooler really wasn’t meant to be for overclockers. It is for the people who want a silent computer and are not too worried about their temperatures of the computer.
I would to rather been able to control the fan via software. The built in sensor to control the fan RPMs seems a little off. I was never able to max out the RPMs. You can cut out the sensor and connect the wire, then use the software fan control.
The fan on this cooler is amazing. It is too silent for me to notice the difference. The hard drive I tested was louder than this. If you’re looking for a nice clean cooler for a server, or a computer that is not heavily used or overclocked, then I would recommend this cooler. Its suggested retail price is $20, making it an affordable solution. If you really stress your computer, and plan on overclocking, then I would pass on this cooler. While it’s a nice cooler, it just doesn’t cool as much as other solutions.
Pros
- Quite fan
- Attractive
- Works at stock speeds
Cons
I would like to thank Scythe-USA for generously providing DevHardware with this review sample. If you have any questions you may visit the forums or contact Scythe-USA.
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