NoiseControl Silverado Heatsink Review
Tomshardware brought a lot of attention to the Noisecontrol
Silverado when they originally reviewed it. It has been quite some time since
this heatsink was conceived to cool processors and field has change a lot to say
the least. Chillblast.com sell this once infamous heatsink with its special silver base heatspreader for about 40 pounds sterling, or about $85CDN. The claim to fame is of course that little 50gram silver disk and what it does for the rest of the heatsink.
You see, the idea behind the Noisecontrol Silverado
is that the silver base spreads the heat more evenly over the aluminum extrusion
which is cooled by twin squirrel cage fans. The two fans come with an assortment of
different connectors which lower the voltage to the motor, and thus limit their
speed.
This was essentially the first kind of fan
rheostat. Now a days we have little fan busses which can do the same thing with
less fuss and muss, but this system is just as easy to use. For full-tilt
performance the adaptor cables can be set aside and the Silverado simply plugged
into free motherboard fan headers. If your board only has one free for the
processor heatsink you will need to look into getting a Y-splitter.
 |
Heatsink Specsheet: |
- Model: Silverado
- HS Material: Silver, extruded aluminum
- Fan: 1300-3100RPM, 12V, 15-35CFM,
- Fan Dim: 25x60x60mm
- FHS Dimensions: 80x60x44mm
- Made by: A Conto
- Cost: ~$85CDN
Sold By: www.chillblast.com |
| |
 |
The Silverado is a
large cooler and it comes with an equally large
assortment of gear and a full set of instructions. The instructions clearly
indicate the steps the user needs to follow to install the Silverado for the best possible results. Namely this involves putting a small cork backer behind the socket
for added support, and to prevent vibration.
This is an optional step, but a good one to follow if you are setting up a computer from
scratch.
Several small rubber O rings come with the package and their place
is around the small feet AMD adhere to every Athlon processor. These
spacers help support the large heatsink, and prevent crushed cores. Noisecontrol
even include a small syringe of thermal compound so everything you need is right
in front of you!
One really important note is
about the orientation of the cooler when you go to mount it on the processor. If
you are not careful there is a 50% chance that you will mount it backwards and
potentially fry your chip. The instructions clearly show the right and wrong
way, but to emphasize this the manufacturer has placed a small black dot on the
side which faces the socket cam arm. It may not be much, but at least it is an
indication of the right way to connect the Silverado up.
The 50gram silver disk is attached to the
machined aluminum base of the heatsink with four machine screws and some silicon thermal material.
The surface of the aluminum is polished as bright and shiny as mirror
and you can literally see yourself in it. The silver is
soft so take care when mounting the heatsink not to hit a silicon corner which may scratch
it.
Overall, the package which comes with the heatsink
is pretty impressive, very comprehensive and a little bit unwieldy to be
honest. It would be great to see NoiseControl offer an updated version of the
heatsink with more advanced fan controls and possibly even a different style
aluminum heatsink.... but we'll just have to wait for that, and in the mean time
lets look at the Silverado some more!