1. Introduction
Founded in 2001 and headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan. Thermalright is a company specialized in manufacturing of cooling system such as: coolers for CPUs and Graphics cards, heatsinks for RAM modules and motherboards. The products are oriented towards gamers and overclocking enthusiasts.
Official product link:
http://www.thermalright.com/html/products/cpu_cooler/silverArrow_itx.html
2. Packaging and accessories
The cooler is packaged in a black & white cardboard box it has the following dimensions: (L)208 x (W)190 x (H)185mm.
The front side is simple, here are printed only the name and logo of the manufacturer.
On the sides there is printed a symbol which represents the “Silver Arrow” line, the name of the cooler is placed in the middle, while lower there are the compatible sockets. Also on the left down corner there is the website of the manufacturer.
The interior packaging used by Thermalright includes soft foam to dampen the impacts and the individual packaging of each component in plastic bags.
Accessories
The product comes with the following accessories:
– 1x Manual
– 1x Thermalright Emblem
– 1x Pair of white cotton gloves
– 1x Metal backplate
– 1x Mylar film
– 1x Mounting plate
– 2x Fan clips
– 1x Tube of Chill Factor III thermal compound
– 1x Anchoring mount
– 1x Metal Wrench
– 4x Intel washers
– 4x AMD washers
– 8x Anti-vibration pads
– 7x M3 L6 Screws
– 5x M3 L10 screws
– 4x LGA2011 screw pillars
– 4x Screw nut
– 1x Backplate cap
3. Specificatii/Specifications
Model: Silver Arrow ITX
Colors Available: Black
TDP: 240W
Supported sockets:
Intel: 775/ 1150/ 1151/ 1155/ 1156/ 1366/ 2011/ 2011-3
AMD: AM2/ AM2+/ AM3/ AM3+/ FM1/ FM2/ FM2+
Heatsink:
Materials:
– Fins: Nickel-plated Aluminum
– Heatpipes & Base: C1100 Pure copper nickel plated
Dimensions (L x W x H): 154mm x 103mm x 165mm
Heatpipes: Ø6 mm – 6pcs
Weight: 700g / 870g with fan
Fan(s):
Model: TY-149
Dimensions(mm): 152 x 140 x 26.5
Fan Speed: 300~1300RPM (PWM controlled)
Fan Airflow: 61.7 CFM
Fan Noise: 24.9 dBA
Bearing type: Enhanced Hyper-Flow Bearing
Voltage Range: 5 – 13 V
Connector: 4-Pin PWM
Lifespan: 50,000 hours
Weight: 170g
Features:
Dual Tower heat-sink designed for mini-ITX boards in cube cases.
6 X 6mm sintered heat-pipes in dual fin stacks effectively takes away excessive heat from the CPU when overclocked.
Nickeled black heat-sink body and retention system (including fan clips and metal back plate).
Unique fin stack design better fits Asus ROG mini ITX motherboards.
4. Visual inspection
The design of the Silver Arrow ITX model is optimized for use in small form factor systems such as ITX or mATX, the cooler measures 165mm in height and 103mm in width.
The general look is similar with the rest of the Silver Arrow line, having elements such as sharp angled fins, nickel plated copper and heatpipes in a U shape.
The heatsink uses 51 black nickel-plated aluminum fins, these have an angular design at the edges for a better performance and a pleasant look.
The Silver Arrow ITX model features 6 nickel-plated copper heatpipes each with a diameter of 6mm, these are arranged in a U shape to facilitate heat dissipation, these make contact with the base of the cooler but not direct contact with the CPU itself.
At the top of the cooler, the ends of the heatpipes are covered by plastic caps.
The base of the cooler is made out of nickel-plated copper just like the heatpipes. The base is brushed to a mirror finish.
The Silver Arrow ITX is accompanied by a single Thermalright TR TY149 fan, with the following dimensions: 152 x 140 x 26.5mm. The fan has a maximum speed of 1300RPM and features PWM. The cable of the fan is covered by high quality black sleeving and the fan uses a 4-Pin Molex connector and a splitter to power both fans of the cooler.
5. Testing
The following system was used to test the cooler:
– Processor: Intel i5 4690K @ 3.9 GHz and overclocked to 4.5 GHz
– Motherboard: MSI Z97 Gaming 9 ACK
– RAM: Crucial Ballistix Tactical 8GB DDR3 @ 2133MHz
– GPU: MSI GeForce GTX 970 Armor 2X 4G
– SSD: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB
– HDD: Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB
– PSU: Antec Edge 550W Gold
– Display: AOC i2769VM
– Case: Phanteks Enthoo Luxe White
– Thermal compound: Arctic Cooling MX-4
Software used for testing the cooler:
– AIDA64 Extreme Version: 5.80.4000 (Oct 25, 2016)
– Intel Burn Test v2.54
– Prime95 28.5
The cooler was tested with the CPU at the default turbo frequency of 3.9 GHz and overclocked to 4.5 GHz with a core voltage of 1.187 V.
Also the included fans have been used at their maximum speed.
The room temperature was approximately 26°C (78°F), with 2°C margin of error.
The idle test consists of the CPU sitting idle at the desktop for 30 minutes, the temperature was measured at the end of the test.
The settings of the software used are the following:
Intel Burn Test v2.54 – Stress level: Maximum
Prime95 28.5 – small FFT
AIDA64 Extreme Version – Temperature monitoring.
Each test was conducted for 40 minutes.
The test results are as follows:
Idle
Full Load
The noise level was measured at three different distances from the fans (10cm, 20cm, 30cm.) the noise was measured with a margin of error of ± 5 db.
6. Final thoughts
The Thermalright Silver Arrow ITX cooler is desigend to be used in SFF type system with mATX and mini-ITX motherboards, uisng a Dual Tower design and a single 150mm fan.
The build of the cooler is exceptional: the main materials used are copper and aluminum nickel plated. The base and heatpipes are made out of copper while the fins are made out of aluminum.
The performance of the Silver Arrow ITX model is very good, the cooler being among the first places beating some AIO type coolers.
The installation process is done with relative ease, and the user manual is easy to understand.
Another feature is the silence of the included 150mm fan, at its maximum speed it won’t go over 30db.
Due to its construction, the cooler does not cover the RAM slots, being compatible with the majority of RAM models in the case of it being used with an ATX motherboard.
In conclusion, the Thermalright Silver Arrow ITX model offers a very good performance being also one of the most silent coolers. The accesorry bundle is rich and the included manual is easy to understand maing the installation process easier.
The main feature of this cooler is its format, optimised for SFF type system and mATX & mini-ITX motherboard, the compatibility list of motherboards is available on Thermalright’s website.
