The good guys over at the Danish company StudieData
were kind enough to send me one of their special designed “MIST Silent Twin”
socket A coolers for this review.
StudieData
has worked together with the Norwegian company “Microplex”
in the production of a high performance / low noise air cooler - and the outcome
is the Silent Twin socket A. So far it is not available for Pentium 4.
The Base
The unit itself consists of an aluminium heat sink with a
4 mm thick copper base. The fins are very thin, and the construction of the
base ensures that the fans won’t work “against” each other. The bottom copper
finish is quite nice and level and I did not find any lapping necessary. It
isn’t exactly clear as a mirror, but not too far from it. Total weight is 376
g, and total size measures 95 x 66 x 69 mm.
Picture by SverreSjøthun
The Fans
On the sides, it carries a pair of Papst
60mm fans, made especially for this cooler. In cooperation they deliver 22 CFM
(Cubic feet per minute) at a total of 19 dB (A) at 2650 rpm. They are held on
place by two special clips that allows for very easy fan swapping, should one
desire to use other fans than the ones included. Both fans blow inwards per
default. Using two fans instead of just one serves a double purpose: First of
all, if one of the fans suddenly stops working, the other one will continue
to make sure that the CPU does not fry in a matter of seconds. (Consider this
as some sort of insurance against serious overheating resulting in burn outs).
Secondly, using two low noise fans will allow for as much
air flow than a noisier single fan is able to put out.
Picture by SverreSjøthun
Mounting
The Silent Twin comes shipped with a bit of Arctic Alumina,
which goes to show the manufacturer’s good intentions with this cooler. For
the tests I used Arctic Silver III as thermal paste, but kudos to StudieData
for adding the Arctic Ilumina to the package instead
of either 1) nothing or 2) some cheap silicone grease. The mounting clip covers
all three socket lugs on both sides to reduce the risk of the cooler ever falling
off. The heat sink is firmly seated on the CPU and the clip seems to apply a
good and even pressure. However, you will need a screwdriver to remove the heat
sink from the CPU once placed there. No biggie, but a small “handle” would have
been nice.
Both fans use motherboard connectors. I would have liked an
extension cord with a hard drive molex instead, so
they do not draw their power from the motherboard. However, using two motherboard
connectors both fan speeds can be monitored. I hardly ever use this feature,
but I know some people do. (There is a Y-splitter in the box as well so you
can run both fans on just one motherboard outlet, but if you use the Y-splitter
you can only monitor one of the two fans).
