Performance Results

The system used inside the Silentium T2 is far from high end, a single core AMD Athlon 64 CPU and one passively cooled Geforce 8600 GT should not give many problems for any case. Unfortunately the Silentium T2 is not big enough to fit higher end systems, especially long VGA cards are an issue; the power supply doesn’t work with high end motherboards, but that issue could be resolved more easily.

The low-end system we used has only been stressed once in the past, inside a Micro-ATX case, the In-Win Allure. So we’ll compare performance numbers of the T2 with those.

The three case fans inside the Silentium T2 are temperature controlled; we stressed the system for an extended period of time but couldn’t pick up any increase in noise. Here are the results:



Noise wise the Silentium T2 definitely delivers, one of the quietest cases we have tested yet; be sure to match it with passively cooled/low noise components to make the best of it.

Temperature wise the VGA and CPU are cooled extremely well inside this case, the CPU cooler especially is receiving fresh air and that helps a lot, besting the Allure by an impressive 14°C! The Silencer S1 installed on the 8600 GT does an excellent job keeping the GPU Cooled. The Silentium T2 case design doesn’t manage to improve cooling performance here, ~2°C hotter compared to the Allure.

The one area where the Silentium T2 drags behind is HDD cooling. While noise wise the HDD seek noise is nicely muffled away, cooling suffers a lot. In a 20°C room the HDD temperature rose easily up to 57°C, in the summer this will pass the 60°C mark and become a problem. While the original T2 encased a single HDD into its own aluminum cooling box, the T2 ECO 80 takes a different approach which proves not very successful.

Conclusive Thoughts

Arctic Cooling started out with low noise VGA coolers, followed by CPU coolers and now also PSU and enclosures. The Silentium T series of cases provides low noise computing out of the box that is for certain.

At an estimated retail price of €110/$173 it’s an affordable tower case. While Arctic Cooling advertises it as a full ATX case, we have our doubts, its diminutive size make it impossible to fit high end VGA cards inside, the power supply lacks an essential 8-pin connector to power the latest enthusiast motherboards. This leaves us with using Micro-ATX motherboards and low/mid-range VGA cards. If your goal is to build a low noise affordable mid-range system the Silentium T2 will could make for an interesting choice.

Cooling wise the three default fans (2x80mm and 1x120mm of the PSU) do their job of cooling almost all components without problem. CPU and VGA area are well ventilated, although the lack of a dust filter will mean you’ll have some dust buildup after a few months. The only cooling drawback is related to the hard drives, the included aluminum heatsink does not sufficiently cool down the hard drives which are squeezed inside a noise-cancelling contraption; temperature rise quickly above 55°C which is not healthy for your data disk.

Overall we were impressed by Arctic Cooling innovative approach to the ‘ol ATX case formula, however some areas need improvement before we can heartily recommend it all of our readers. If you have mid-range system and don’t mind modifying the HDD cooling system a bit then the asking price of €110 for a tower case with PSU is hardly exaggerated.




We thank Betsy from Arctic Cooling for allowing us to test the Silentium T2 ECO 80, until next time!