Arctic Cooling Super Silent 2L Athlon XP HSF Review

Cooling/CPU Cooling by SidneyWong @ 2004-11-14

Arctic Cooling has a line of low cost coolers covering S478 and S462. Previously we looked into the 4Pro L, and today we will examine the 2L for Athlon XP

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Results and Conclusion

Test System:

Lazyman's Test Setup
CPU Athlon XP 1700+ @ 2100Mhz – 1.775v
Mainboard Abit NF7 v1
Memory Apacer 512Mb PC2700
Other Components Video: ATI Radeon 9000 Pro 64Mb
Case: Aspire X-Dream Blue with side panel fan blocked (2x80mm intake, 2x80mm rear exhaust, 1x80mm top exhaust)
PSU: Generic 400Watt


  • Room temp during test ~22°C
  • AS5 (Arctic Silver 5) used on the CPU courtesy from Arctic Silver
  • Test done with side panel close

    Madshrimps (c)



    Madshrimps (c)



    Results:

    A Therlmalright SLK800U with an 80 mm fan running ~3,000 RPM was used for comparison.

    Madshrimps (c)


    Well, the 2L low fan setting is only 1,500 rpm from an 80 mm fan and I have not seen this processor hitting 57C ever before. Logic tells me not to take the risk running at the low fan setting, but my heart tells me that it’s my job. I did run it at the low setting; system crashed and logic prevailed.


    Conclusion:

    Super Silent 2L with MSRP $24 could be purchased for below $19 here in the U.S. if you look around. There is a 2M model without the LED light for even less, below $14. This is a very affordable pricing. If you are in the market for a low budget AMD system and don’t mind a few C’s higher, from a factory that is ISO certified, this is a rather good deal. The new AMD retail pack coolers are decent; dislike previous AMD marketing decision to throw it cheap coolers. Nevertheless, they are MUCH louder.

    PRO
    very good price point.
    Attractive look.
    Much quieter than the stock AMD cooling
    Decent performance at 2,800 RPM


    CON
    I question the usefulness of the low fan setting


    Questions/Comments: Forum thread

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