How quiet is the Arctic Cooling Silencer ATI 5 Rev. 2?

jermaink · Post by **jermaink** » Thu Jul 07, 2005 11:31 pm

Anyone have any experience with the Arctic Cooling Silencer ATI 5 Revision 2? If so, how noisy is it (compared to other quiet fans/components)?

xarope · Post by **xarope** » Fri Jul 08, 2005 12:28 am

I replaced the stock cooler on a sapphire x850pro (which was really buzzy even at 53%). The next loudest thing I heard was the 120x38mm tricool at medium setting in my P180. So I'd say at idle, it's quite quiet.

I also have a VF700 sitting on an ATI 9600, but they are different cases (P180 w/arctic silencer versus CM5 w/VF700) so I can't make a realistic comparison between the two... sorry.

jermaink · Post by **jermaink** » Fri Jul 08, 2005 8:01 pm

Also, is it possible to change the speed of the fan? Oh, and dooes anyone know what the cfm the fan is rated at, and what dBs as well?

CX23882-19 · Post by **CX23882-19** » Sat Jul 09, 2005 12:19 am

Running on PWM, it is VERY harsh sounding at anything other than 100%. If you connect it to a Zalman Fanmate 2 at minimum speed it is very quiet, but I don't know how good the cooling is (since I haven't had the guts to change it yet).

jermaink · Post by **jermaink** » Sat Jul 09, 2005 10:09 pm

So it's quietest at 100%...?

CX23882-19 · Post by **CX23882-19** » Sun Jul 10, 2005 4:31 am

Running from the graphics card's fan header, it is smoother at 100% than at any lower speeds.

Basically:
X800XL stock 100% - loud
X800XL stock 10% - inaudible
ATI Silencer 5 100% - approx equal to X800XL stock at 40%
ATI Silencer 5 10% - louder than X800XL stock at 10% (bad vibrations and clicking)
ATI Silencer 5 Fanmated - inaudible

EDSat · Post by **EDSat** » Sun Jul 10, 2005 4:54 am

I used to have a Zalman vf700 and didn't like that it dumped the heat into the case. I tried the Ati silencer 5 and decided to stay with it on my ATI 850xt. I have the fan plugged into my video card and control the speed with ATI-tool. I have it set so that the fan runs at 2% when I'm doing everyday stuff and not pushing the card. At that setting, the fan noise is about the same as my ambient case noise. When sitting at my desk, I could just barely hear my case. Compared to the VF700 set to low, I think the noise is the same. I have an ATI card, so I don't know if you could do the same and control the fan with an NV card. Hope that helps.

jermaink · Post by **jermaink** » Sun Jul 10, 2005 5:55 am

2%! That seems quite low. But I guess that if you aren't really using the card, it wouldn't produce too much heat.

So you'd say that at 2% the AC Silencer ATI 5 is as quiet as the Zalman VF700 set to 'low' (what exactly is that - software or wiring). How about at 100%, what would you say the difference is?

EDSat · Post by **EDSat** » Sun Jul 10, 2005 8:01 am

The Zalman is set to Low by plug selection, so I guess it would be wiring. Yeah, I have the Ati Silencer running at 2% most of the time and I have it ramp up when my temps start going up. With that setting, my card hovers at about 39-40C and is inaudible within the case. However, when it does speed up, its noisier than the zalman but I dont care at that point because I'm usually playing a game. I'm happier with the silencer though because I was able to plug the fan directly into my vid card header and it exhausts the heat out the case.

EDSat · Post by **EDSat** » Sun Jul 10, 2005 8:05 am

Oh, and I havent had any problems with clicking or anything with the fan that other people have had. I don't know if I've just been lucky or something. I have the rev 2 though and they supposedly fixed the fan clicking problem.

jermaink · Post by **jermaink** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 7:28 am

So with the AC ATI 5 R2, you can use ATI Tool to force the fan to 2% at low temps (i.e. idle) and tell it to go to 100% at higher temps (i.e. in a game)?

While for the VF700 you have to change the wiring to change the fan speed?

EDSat · Post by **EDSat** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 6:37 pm

Yeah, with the ATI silencer, you can plug the fan into the vid card header and let the vid card control the fan speed. The VF700 speed is basically constant as far as I know. However, the VF700 is supposed to be a great cooler at just about any speed you set it at.

CX23882-19 · Post by **CX23882-19** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 11:58 pm

EDSat wrote:Oh, and I havent had any problems with clicking or anything with the fan that other people have had. I don't know if I've just been lucky or something. I have the rev 2 though and they supposedly fixed the fan clicking problem.

I wouldn't describe it as "clicking" per se (so perhaps the Rev.1 were really bad) but the fan is very poor on my particular cooler. At any speed controlled by the graphics card's header it makes a horrible noise. Running from a Zalman fanmate it doesn't get much better until you get to absolute minimum speed. It is probably a little smoother running on the Fanmate, but the fan feels very unbalanced. The vibrations this causes I'd expect to travel straight through the graphics card, to the motherboard and then into the case.

xarope · Post by **xarope** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 12:17 am

That is really strange, I have a rev 2 and I don't particularly think that is the noisiest part of my case (p180 with stock antec tri-cools at low setting, zalman cnps 7700, enermax noisetaker 470w).

I would say that after installing the silencer, the next immediate noticeable noise in my case is the bottom 120x38mm antec tri-cool. At medium it buzzes, at low it is quieter but still worth replacing (for which I am waiting for a bunch of 80mm and 120mm yate loons from silencio_777).

perhaps by the time I get around to replacing the tri-cools, the next noise item would be the silencer?!?

jermaink · Post by **jermaink** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 8:42 am

How good/bad was the stock cooler? I've got the Powercolor X800 XL, but haven't installed it (so I don't know how the supplied fan is).

xarope · Post by **xarope** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 6:56 pm

the stock cooler on the x850pro was shocking, high pitched buzzing at 53% (worse at 100%, like a jet taking off - and that's in the p180 case enclosed! - on firts bootup).

scorp · Post by **scorp** » Mon Jul 18, 2005 3:03 pm

I have a NV5 Rev1. Pretty awfull. Modified the BIOS to keep it at 35% fan speed for 2D and it's still the loudest thing in my case by far. At above 50% it's already very annoying. Not sure how the Rev2 is, but Rev1 is definitely not silent.

jamesm · Post by **jamesm** » Fri Jul 22, 2005 8:27 am

scorp wrote:I have a NV5 Rev1. Pretty awfull. Modified the BIOS to keep it at 35% fan speed for 2D and it's still the loudest thing in my case by far. At above 50% it's already very annoying. Not sure how the Rev2 is, but Rev1 is definitely not silent.

Can you post a link on how to mod the bios?

wundi · Post by **wundi** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 2:42 am

Here's another review of Rev. 2 if you were missing one..

techPowerUp! wrote:The clicking noises which Revision 1 had are completely gone now, at any fan speed. Also the new fan seems to be even quieter than the fan of the first revision. Overall I must say that the fan is VERY quiet.

Their standards probably aren't the quietest but at least they seem to concentrate on noise issues more than most sites.

edit:
Also noticed the same site has reviewed Ati Silencer 4 Rev.1 & 2, and in the first review they complained about the clicking noise and in the second stated it was gone. So given that the same fan changes took place between the AS 5 revisions, this might be quite good.

Zefram0911 · Post by **Zefram0911** » Tue Aug 30, 2005 12:24 pm

I have an Ati X850XT PE. The reason I bought the Silencer 5 rev. 2 was because on certain games, the stock cooling wasn't cutting it. Imagine my pleasant surprise when I installed it and the noise coming from it was a lot less than stock.

I don't have actual numbers for you or really anything to compare it too, because this is my second post and I'm a cooling nub... but the are REALLY REALLY quiet IMO.

Also, yes you can control the speed of the fan on of the Silencer. I plug the fan's power right into the video card and I use Ati Tool to control the speed of the fan. At any speed, even 100% the fan is pretty quiet. More quiet at slower speeds of course... none of that clicking noise talked about either.

jermaink · Post by **jermaink** » Wed Aug 31, 2005 4:58 am

After further use, I have found the fan on the AC Silencer ATI 5 Rev. 2 to be very quiet. Though it's winter (in Melbourne, not that cold), I've been able to have GPU temps of about 30-32 C while having the fan between 10-30%.

slimeballzz · Post by **slimeballzz** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 5:19 pm

EDSat wrote:I used to have a Zalman vf700 and didn't like that it dumped the heat into the case. I tried the Ati silencer 5 and decided to stay with it on my ATI 850xt. I have the fan plugged into my video card and control the speed with ATI-tool. I have it set so that the fan runs at 2% when I'm doing everyday stuff and not pushing the card. At that setting, the fan noise is about the same as my ambient case noise. When sitting at my desk, I could just barely hear my case. Compared to the VF700 set to low, I think the noise is the same. I have an ATI card, so I don't know if you could do the same and control the fan with an NV card. Hope that helps.

Are you sure you are running at 2%? I have an ATI X850XT as well with an ATI Silencer 5 rev2 and the lowest speed I could get was 5% when using ATI Tool. I can select it at 2% but the fan won't spin up. If I change it to 3% it will start up but it displays it running as 5%.

Curtis · Post by **Curtis** » Fri Sep 16, 2005 7:32 pm

Is a fanmate easy to fit to one of these? I bought an HIS X800XL with the Silencer preinstalled (on the basis of the 9800 version of the same card) and the clicking/buzzing is really starting to irritate me.

jermaink · Post by **jermaink** » Fri Sep 16, 2005 11:19 pm

For me there is a little bit of clicking on my Powercolor X800XL with one of these, but I'm running things open air, where it's only audible when I put my ear within 10 cm of the graphics card (at 5-30% on ATI Tray Tools). At 50%+ the fan noise (quiet wooshing) drowns out the clicking.

NoNameFace · Post by **NoNameFace** » Wed Sep 21, 2005 10:38 am

I have installed an ATI Silencer 1 Rev. 2 and the fan is VERY quiet. Even at 12V, the fan itself is barely audible, it's mainly wind noise. The key is not to hook it up to the fan header on the video card (it sometimes sends voltage peaks, which cause the clicking noise some are hearing), but to get power from the PSU directly (a fan controller for example, or simply a 4 -> 3 pin adapter).