Manufacturer: Arctic Cooling
Official Web Site: http://www.arctic-cooling.com/index.php
Product: Arctic-Cooling Silencer NV5

Translation: María Florencia Gonzalez (Sworn Translator) Esta dirección de correo electrónico está protegida contra los robots de spam, necesita tener Javascript activado para poder verla


With the arrival of the summer, PC users usually realize of all the improvements they should've done to the PC in orther to endure the heat. Instead, we, overclockers, start to freak out: we either improve the PC's thermal solution or play 'Minehunt' until fall comes...
Knowing how much a modern video card consumes, and then simply estimating how much of that consumption becomes heat, it is not difficult to conclude that a simple and modest heat sink with almost no forced ventilation, plus an extremly high room temperature, is not enough for the PC. Apparently, the options we can count on aren't many: we can improve the thermal solution -and in most cases, resign ourselves to live with a constant, unpleasant noise- or reduce the working prospects of our beloved video card. But fortunately, there are other alternatives to be considered that will provide us with an excellent thermal performance without the need of an earplug.

With five years in the market, a steady growing, and renowed for the quality of its products, the Swiss company Arctic-Cooling produces the well-known Silencer line for cards with Nvidia and ATI chips. Our aim today is to find out why so many users have chosen this product in particular. 

To run the tests, a MSI 6800GT video card with a 256Mb memory chip will be used against an NV Silencer 5 (Rev. 3).  However, we will work with a Rev. 2 model.  The only difference is that in Rev. 3, the dimensions have been adapted to be compatible with 7800 chip boards.

The NV Silencer 5 comes in a blister, along with a backplate, a rubber protection for the back part or the card, a syringe with conductive grease, a grille to allow the air out of the system, and of course, the installation instructions.