SilverStone have created an extensive range of HTPC cases over the past few years and they have also developed CPU coolers to go with those. The NT01 Pro CPU cooler we have here today from SilverStone is a totally redesigned version of the older NT01-E CPU cooler. This cooler is designed to tackle the latest generation of processors in either active or passive modes. The design of the cooler is really something quite unique and yet strange, the NT01 Pro only takes 70mm or 80mm cooling fans so the amount of air you’ll be able to move is going to be a lot less than 120mm CPU coolers.
SilverStone recommends using this cooler in the GD04, GD05 and GD06 cases because it has been specifically designed to fit in those. Measuring in at 120mm high it certainly isn’t very tall although there are several much smaller competing products on the market so this really needs to have the edge on performance.
As always you can take a quick look at the specifications of this product here, otherwise let’s proceed to put this new CPU cooler from SilverStone through its paces.
Good on you Ryan. I’m glad to see you didn’t pull any punches doing this review, in fact you threw a lot. It leaves a bad taste in one’s mouth when one see’s a reviewer struggling for something redeeming to write about a sub par/overpriced product because they’re afraid to offend the supplier/manufacturer and not get another one of their products to review. Such situations occur with regularity.
Here here. Not to say that Silverstone don’t make good products, and Ryan has expressed that this isn’t a bad product, but pricing among other things let it down.
They generally make excellent cases, fans and CPU coolers. For me this one just didn’t meet those high standards. The product is still okay, just overpriced for what it is
I agree with both you & Andy. In my experience Silverstone usually makes excellent, competitively priced products but it seems they fell a bit short with this one.
Useless review. Testing in open air instead of a case with a top fan or a back fan near the heat sink tells you nothing about real cooling performance in fanless mode. This is a cooler made for a purpose, that is to enable shorter HTPC cases that fit comfortably on a hifi rack or a short shelf. It works well enough in fanless mode for any non-overlocked ivy bridge CPU if you’re not a dumb ass who tests in open air without case airflow. It’s better than the ultra-slim low profile (<70mm high) coolers that are it's competitors. The only thing I agree is that it needs to have two 80mm fans with a pwm splitter included, to enable light overclocks. If it had that, it would be reasonable value.
We didn’t test in fanless mode. We tested with two 80mm fans. It is not better than its competitors. I know of several CPU coolers that are slimmer in height and width that perform significantly better than this. Not going to stoop to your level on the name calling, rather sad that you resorted to that.
90% of the buyers of this cooler will be Silverstone Grandia GD0x case users, the cooler is too expensive for what it is to be used for anything else. In that case series it allows the use of an optical drive and contributes to the side to back airflow direction. You should have tested it in a Grandia case to see what kind of cpu it supports in fanless mode and compared it with some slim coolers. For the record, I have a GD05 and a i5 3550. Your review is useless to me and to most people that would actually consider buying this cooler.
I appreciate that. SilverStone didn’t really tell me these things nor did they provide me with these details. I was just informed by SilverStone that it was supposed to be a low profile CPU cooler. Had I of known it was designed for a specific case or case series I would of requested that case for the review in order to test. But there isn’t much I can do about that now. Believe it or not SilverStone said they were happy with the review and agreed with me.