Cooling

SilentiumPC Spartan 4 Air CPU Cooler Review

Performance

Given that the SilentiumPC Spartan 4 is by no means a ‘high-end’ air cooler, on the surface of things it didn’t appear to do particularly well in our testing process. When you take a closer look at some of the competition it finds itself surrounded by, however, (that could mostly be classed as large mid to high-end cooling solutions) we can’t honestly say this was surprising. You wouldn’t, after all, see a Fiat as a fair comparison to a tractor.

So, yes, in terms of temperatures the Spartan 4 isn’t a world-beater. Then again, for a cooler of this size, that can hardly be overly surprising and for what it does manage at stock levels, it is well within acceptable levels. Put simply, the Spartan 4 is definitely an improvement over the vast majority of alternative low-profile/compact cooling solutions which is the market this is undoubtedly being aimed at.

What is a nice surprise, however, is that despite the relatively small 100mm fan, the acoustic performance was excellent. Often in these cases you worry that small fans have to operate at such high speeds that the noise is unbearable. In this instance, however, the Spartan 4 isn’t just remarkably quiet, but it’s one of the best acoustic performers we’ve ever seen. As such, if you’re happy enough with solid levels of temperature control off-set by an exceptionally quiet level of performance, the Spartan 4 does a truly excellent job when compared to many other entry-level designs.

Just in case it needed to be said though, this cooler is definitely not suitable for overclocking of practically any kind! It just simply isn’t big enough to cope with that kind of workload!