New Arctic Cooling VGA Coolers vs Old VGA Coolers

rheostat · Post by **rheostat** » Thu Oct 21, 2004 4:44 pm

As far as I can tell nobody has done a comparison between the new AC ATI Silencer 3 and the older VGA Silencer Rev 3. Anyone used both of these heatsinks? I'm interested in buying an AC VGA heatsink but I'm not sure if newer equals better. My card is an ATI 9800 pro.

bishyb · Post by **bishyb** » Fri Oct 22, 2004 7:02 am

The worst thing about the new ATI Silencer 1 is that theres no fan speed switch now (probably cos AC expect people will be using them on cards with PWM, and my 9800NP doesnt support it

) Also, I had to mod my ATI Silencer 1 to fit over my tweakmonster ramsinks

As far as cooling i'd say theres little difference between my old VGA Silencer rev 1 and the ATI Silencer 1, so I'd recommend the an older rev because it'll probably be cheaper.

Sizzle · Post by **Sizzle** » Fri Oct 22, 2004 7:41 am

Lots of posts in various forums of the new ATI and VN Silences clicking.

rheostat · Post by **rheostat** » Fri Oct 22, 2004 8:38 am

Sizzle wrote:Lots of posts in various forums of the new ATI and VN Silences clicking.

Well that sucks. I was hoping the new ones would be worth the extra money, but if the fans have noise issues then it sort of defeats the purpose of getting a silent vga cooler. Thanks for the responses.

Spod · Post by **Spod** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 12:25 am

This is mostly due to PWM fan control on the ATI cards - the fans used seem to prefer straight voltage control. You could hook it up to a motherboard fan header through a fanmate, if the card will run with nothing plugged into its own fan header.

Arctic Cooling do plan to replace the fan in the next couple of months, after which time you may be able to RMA your existing fan/cooler. If that's not too much hassle.

Orbit · Post by **Orbit** » Wed Oct 27, 2004 12:10 am

its funny I should see this thread.

I just isolated the main source of noise for my system as my ATI Silencer 3.

I turned off comp, unplugged all hdds, turned off all case fans, and booted into bios. Then I unplugged CPU fan, leaving just PSU and ATI Silencer.

Upon stopping the ATI Silencer with my finger, the noise dropped considerably. I have a thermaltake 2fan 'silent' purepower supply 420W... so if my ATI Silencer is making considerably more noise than that PSU, not a good sign.

EXTREMELY unimpressed.... Also, I have a 128mb Radeon 9800XT (its actually a Gecube 9800 pro platinum, but its XT PCB, XT core, and XT bios running at 400MHz, so why not call an apple an apple, and an orange an orange

) And with the stock cooler (VERY poor cooler) the temp was about 70°C idle. Now with this BUZZING anoying ATi Silencer 3, the temp is only 60-62°C idle.

Hardly the temperature difference you'd expect from such a loud cooler. Only pro it has, is that it exhausts the hot air out. I would not recommend this cooler to any SPCR readers.

And, because I have a 9800XT PCB, a VGA SIlencer Revision3 will not fit my card...

wumpus · Post by **wumpus** » Sun Oct 31, 2004 11:05 pm

This is mostly due to PWM fan control on the ATI cards -

I can confirm that my NV5 Silencer does NOT click on a 6800gt. I know this because my old VGA Silencer (on a 9800 pro) definitely DID click, and I performed a direct swap of the cards.

So don't be too quick to conclude that they all click. I am very impressed with my NV5 silencer for $28. Maybe it is an ATI thing?

Post by **Rusty075** » Mon Nov 01, 2004 5:25 am

It's pretty clear that the clicking is mostly the result of the PWM, and not necessarily intrinsic to the cooler itself.

As for blame, I suppose you could split it up: Ati for using a PWM frequency that is low enough to produce clicking. Arctic Cooling for relying on the PWM for voltage control.

Blame aside, the solution for most people has been to wire the cooler directly to a molex, and use the standard fan voltage control methods to regulate its speed.

mkk · Post by **mkk** » Mon Nov 01, 2004 7:27 pm

I hooked my ATI Silencer 1 onto a regular power connector (using a 3-pin extension with bare pins that are easy to persuade into the smaller fan connector) but got just as much clicking on 12V as when connected to the R9800pro card. So I moved down to 5V to get it silent and it does still cool well enough at least without much overclocking. Will combine with a FanMate at a later point as others have done to find the sweet spot around perhaps 8-10V.

My bottom take on the "Arctic Cooling ATI Cooler 1" has to count in the really low cost. I would have liked it if they made it cost a little more by adding a low/high speed selector like on the predecessor and a bit more sturdy screws/pins, but as it is I feel that one still gets a little bit more than what one pays for in this their simplest model.

8300ati · Post by **8300ati** » Sun Nov 14, 2004 6:46 am

0.2/0.9 sone ,rev.3 versus 0.5 sone ,rev.4.
http://www.arctic-cooling.com/vga2.php? ... ta=2&disc=
http://www.arctic-cooling.com/vga2.php? ... a=2&disc=2