Anyone else notice that the VGA Silencer machining sucks?

They make noise, too.

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RaynorWolfcastle
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Anyone else notice that the VGA Silencer machining sucks?

Post by RaynorWolfcastle » Fri Feb 27, 2004 1:33 pm

I got mine yesterday and gave the base of the heatsink my standard roughness test.

I ran a fingernail over the base of the heatsink and yesh that machining sucks. When I did this on my Zalman 7000-AlCu it was pretty smooth (the Alpha PAL8045 I used to have was even better!) but the VGA Silencer's base was downright rough.

So I detached the plastic from the heatsink and started sanding with some 400 grit paper (I did this on a marble counter) when I realized that this thing isn't even flat. The base was significantly concave :roll: .

So I busted out the 150 grit and sanded this thing down until it was flat. Then I worked my way up to 2000 grit sandpaper. End result was much smoother and flatter than the way I received it.

I'm not sure it makes much of a difference this made in the end (I applied Arctic Silver 3 afterwards), but I'm sure wondering why this wasn't done right from the factory...
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PiSan
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Post by PiSan » Sat Feb 28, 2004 6:44 am

I was fairly satisfied with the quality on mine. It wasn't the best I'd seen, but it was plenty flat. I think you may have gotten a fish.
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jojo4u
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Post by jojo4u » Sun Feb 29, 2004 8:20 am

In order to get this incredible low price the quality has to be sacrified. There where some customers who found their VGA Silencer fan to have the wrong rotation direction...
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Wedge
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Post by Wedge » Sun Feb 29, 2004 11:08 am

jojo4u wrote:In order to get this incredible low price the quality has to be sacrified. There where some customers who found their VGA Silencer fan to have the wrong rotation direction...
Wrong rotation direction? Could you explain what that is?

Btw, I got mine cheaply ($13.99), and this thing must be working very well because it gets HOT. Touching it from the back slot where the air exhausts is sometimes unbearable if I've been gaming for a whille.
Last edited by Wedge on Sun Feb 29, 2004 12:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Gnerma
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Post by Gnerma » Sun Feb 29, 2004 11:40 am

I found the mating surface of my silencer to be poorly machined as well. It made that nice ziiiiip sound as you ran your fingernail over it thanks to the pattern of ridges. I lapped her down of course :lol:

This isn't an oddity in the industry though. I've found it to be very hit and miss whether a sink has a smooth surface or not.
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jojo4u
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Post by jojo4u » Sun Feb 29, 2004 3:25 pm

Wedge wrote: Wrong rotation direction? Could you explain what that is?
Yes, the fan simply rotates in the wrong direction, being less effective in pumping the air out. Flipping the power cables didn't help.
If you are able to read german, here's a link:
http://www.silenthardware.de/forum/inde ... ost&p=8618
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