Installation
While the product manual is a little limited in terms of written instructions, you are provided with detailed and coloured images that clearly denote exactly what you have to do for your particular socket type. This even includes the newly released Intel LGA 1700 platform. – In terms of a step-by-step guide, this is absolutely perfect and should prove to be a very useful asset for both experienced and new hands at CPU cooler installation.
Mounting
Despite being provided with a wrench-like tool, I didn’t have to use it during the installation on my 1151 socket. Something which, I’ll freely admit, I’m very grateful for as often any kind of mounting system that required such a tool can be a colossal pain in the backside, particularly when you don’t have the luxury of installing it in a flat position.
Fortunately, for the socket type used on our test bench at least, the installation method was very straightforward and highly intuitive for anyone with any kind of experience fitting CPU coolers. SilentiumPC has, thankfully, not attempted to reinvent the wheel here and, overall, this is about as easy as it gets and is highly accessible for all levels of users.
Overall Thoughts
From out of the box and onto our test bench, the SilentiumPC Fortis 5 took me no longer than 7 minutes to install. There was nothing tricky about this process, and, on the whole, for air coolers in general, this is about as good as it gets. – The only mildly time-consuming aspect is that you have to fit the anti-vibration pads to the corner of the fan yourself. It’s fiddly work, but not certainly not impossible (not if I managed it without swearing at any rate!).
When fitted, I rather like the look of the SilentiumPC Fortis 5. It’s simplistic, but what’s wrong with that? Additionally, unless you have some amazingly chunky RAM modules, you should be able to install this in practically any direction you like. – So, it looks good, and the installation methodology is (relatively speaking) simple. How does it perform though? Well, there’s only one way to find out. Let’s fire up our system and see what happens!
