ASUS Silent Square Pro: Compact Embedded-Fan Heatpipe Tower
by Wesley Fink on April 16, 2007 2:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Final Words
The Silent Square Pro is the top cooler in ASUS' Silent Square "Gamer" series, which is the top cooler line produced by the Thermal Solutions group at ASUS. This is the same ASUS that is well known to any computer enthusiast as one of the largest and most prolific manufacturers of quality motherboards. ASUS is a tier-1 manufacturer who is often first to market with new chipsets and technology.
The Silent Square Pro is beautifully packaged and exquisitely finished. It is almost like an orange gem with a clear heritage of breeding and attention to detail. If looks alone were all that mattered then the Silent Square Pro would be the Miss Universe of the computer cooler set. However, my mother and yours probably warned you that "beauty is as beauty does". By that yardstick the Silent Square Pro is the ugly stepsister since it really "does" very little compared to other top heatpipe coolers.
This starts with the socket 775 mount on the Silent Square Pro. Either we had a bad sample or the design doesn't apply enough pressure to the socket 775 CPU for a good fit and proper cooling. By shimming the attachment clip we were able to reduce the idle temperature at a 3.73 GHz overclock from 55C to a more rational 42C. That, however, did not improve cooling performance in overclocking enough for the Silent Square Pro to be competitive with comparably priced heatpipe towers we have tested.
At stock speed the ASUS Silent Square Pro is a good performer, maintaining the CPU temp at 29C idle and 42C under load. This compares favorably with coolers targeted at silence like the Zalman 9500 and 9700. Despite the name, at full speed the fan is not silent, with idle and load noise clearly louder than the system noise floor. However, a slight reduction in speed moves noise below the system floor. Running "silent" at minimum speed the cooling is 33C idle and 48C load, which is still okay cooling in this worst case scenario. It is easy to find a happy and reasonably silent fan speed in the middle with the included digital readout fan controller. As a quiet cooler at stock speeds the ASUS Silent Square Pro is a big improvement over the stock Intel cooler. It cools better and it is certainly a lot prettier in your case than the Intel Retail HSF.
But ASUS advertises the Silent Square Pro as the ideal cooler for Core 2 Duo overclocking and gaming. Compared to other top coolers the Silent Square Pro is not a particularly good cooler for C2D overclocking. OC tops out at 3.81 GHz, where the Tuniq Tower 120, Scythe Infinity push-pull, OCZ Vindicator/SilenX, Scythe Ninja Plus B/SilenX, and Thermalright Ultra 120 all overclock to a stable 3.90GHz. The Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme, our top air cooler so far, goes even further to 3.94 GHz. The less-than-top overclocking of the Silent Square Pro is compounded by the smaller and non-standard 90mm embedded fan. If a better replacement could be found the Silent Square Pro might be a better overclocker.
For gaming, we are talking about conditions similar to 80% CPU load, and the Silent Square Pro is not the best performer under load conditions either. Temperatures under load are not really competitive with the best coolers we have tested. Again the small fan with lower output is likely the issue. A higher output fan - if one were available - would likely solve much of this issue as well.
The ASUS Silent Square Pro is a beautiful and well-made compact heatpipe tower. However at a price from $41 for the lower-priced Silent Square online to as much as $70 for the Silent Square Pro, we do not find the cooler to be a very good value. Almost all of the top air coolers we have tested fall in this same price range, but most of them outperform and out-silence the Silent Square Pro. The Silent Square Pro competes better against mid-priced coolers in the $25 to $30 price range. None of these mid-range coolers look as fantastic as the ASUS Silent Square Pro, but if you are looking for performance the $25 to $30 coolers perform at about the same level as the more expensive Silent Square Pro.
As a quiet and effective stock-speed cooler the ASUS will please you. With a reworked socket 775 mount and a higher output fan the Silent Square Pro might even compete with the best. However, as it is now configured the Silent Square Pro is a beautiful diva who promises you everything, but then leaves you stranded all alone with nothing but the check from an expensive dinner.
The Silent Square Pro is the top cooler in ASUS' Silent Square "Gamer" series, which is the top cooler line produced by the Thermal Solutions group at ASUS. This is the same ASUS that is well known to any computer enthusiast as one of the largest and most prolific manufacturers of quality motherboards. ASUS is a tier-1 manufacturer who is often first to market with new chipsets and technology.
The Silent Square Pro is beautifully packaged and exquisitely finished. It is almost like an orange gem with a clear heritage of breeding and attention to detail. If looks alone were all that mattered then the Silent Square Pro would be the Miss Universe of the computer cooler set. However, my mother and yours probably warned you that "beauty is as beauty does". By that yardstick the Silent Square Pro is the ugly stepsister since it really "does" very little compared to other top heatpipe coolers.
This starts with the socket 775 mount on the Silent Square Pro. Either we had a bad sample or the design doesn't apply enough pressure to the socket 775 CPU for a good fit and proper cooling. By shimming the attachment clip we were able to reduce the idle temperature at a 3.73 GHz overclock from 55C to a more rational 42C. That, however, did not improve cooling performance in overclocking enough for the Silent Square Pro to be competitive with comparably priced heatpipe towers we have tested.
At stock speed the ASUS Silent Square Pro is a good performer, maintaining the CPU temp at 29C idle and 42C under load. This compares favorably with coolers targeted at silence like the Zalman 9500 and 9700. Despite the name, at full speed the fan is not silent, with idle and load noise clearly louder than the system noise floor. However, a slight reduction in speed moves noise below the system floor. Running "silent" at minimum speed the cooling is 33C idle and 48C load, which is still okay cooling in this worst case scenario. It is easy to find a happy and reasonably silent fan speed in the middle with the included digital readout fan controller. As a quiet cooler at stock speeds the ASUS Silent Square Pro is a big improvement over the stock Intel cooler. It cools better and it is certainly a lot prettier in your case than the Intel Retail HSF.
But ASUS advertises the Silent Square Pro as the ideal cooler for Core 2 Duo overclocking and gaming. Compared to other top coolers the Silent Square Pro is not a particularly good cooler for C2D overclocking. OC tops out at 3.81 GHz, where the Tuniq Tower 120, Scythe Infinity push-pull, OCZ Vindicator/SilenX, Scythe Ninja Plus B/SilenX, and Thermalright Ultra 120 all overclock to a stable 3.90GHz. The Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme, our top air cooler so far, goes even further to 3.94 GHz. The less-than-top overclocking of the Silent Square Pro is compounded by the smaller and non-standard 90mm embedded fan. If a better replacement could be found the Silent Square Pro might be a better overclocker.
For gaming, we are talking about conditions similar to 80% CPU load, and the Silent Square Pro is not the best performer under load conditions either. Temperatures under load are not really competitive with the best coolers we have tested. Again the small fan with lower output is likely the issue. A higher output fan - if one were available - would likely solve much of this issue as well.
The ASUS Silent Square Pro is a beautiful and well-made compact heatpipe tower. However at a price from $41 for the lower-priced Silent Square online to as much as $70 for the Silent Square Pro, we do not find the cooler to be a very good value. Almost all of the top air coolers we have tested fall in this same price range, but most of them outperform and out-silence the Silent Square Pro. The Silent Square Pro competes better against mid-priced coolers in the $25 to $30 price range. None of these mid-range coolers look as fantastic as the ASUS Silent Square Pro, but if you are looking for performance the $25 to $30 coolers perform at about the same level as the more expensive Silent Square Pro.
As a quiet and effective stock-speed cooler the ASUS will please you. With a reworked socket 775 mount and a higher output fan the Silent Square Pro might even compete with the best. However, as it is now configured the Silent Square Pro is a beautiful diva who promises you everything, but then leaves you stranded all alone with nothing but the check from an expensive dinner.
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JarredWalton - Monday, April 16, 2007 - link
I wouldn't call this a "top 20" yet - more like "20 good/great coolers" - but I can do something about the graphs. Large (very large) versions now linked in. There's still a ton of data, so I figured a lot of people would just look at the tables below the graphs. Either way, I hope this works for you. Not sure what I'll do with the graphs when there's 30 coolers in the list! ;)yacoub - Monday, April 16, 2007 - link
The click-thru for hi-res is a great interim solution! Thanks!yacoub - Monday, April 16, 2007 - link
so few 650i motherboard roundups. :DGetting a bit anxious to see a nice 650i roundup before the 6320/6420/4400 launch... and perhaps an AMD motherboard roundup so folks who are looking to take advantage of the Intel price drop next week can be better informed about what good stable, overclocking-featured s775 boards exist or are coming soon, and compare that to what the current competition in the AMD arena looks like with their new CPU pricing and whatever AM2 motherboards are decent and how they overclock (which I have no clue about since I haven't seen any reviews/overviews/roundups for AMD boards in several months.)
What a great time for a nice Gary Key overview and analysis of the motherboard/overclocking scene!
Lots of talk on forums about DS3 v3.3 or whatever the Gigabyte P965 board is called. A bit about the MSi 650i board that seems to be well built and not as buggy as most boards but not as strong an overclocker. Please let's get a nice roundup.
rjm55 - Monday, April 16, 2007 - link
AT probably has the largest database of top coolers tested on the C2D right now, sonce most other sites are still testing with older P4's and AMD. Thanks for providing the info I was looking for.One question though. I have personally tested the Zalman 9500 on the AMD and C2D platforms. The 9500 is a brilliant performer on the AMD processor, but I agree it is a dog on the Core 2 Duo. Do you or any readers have a notion why some coolers do well on the AMD and are misrable performers on the Core 2 Duo?
Wesley Fink - Monday, April 16, 2007 - link
I believe the major reason coolers like the 9500 do well on AMD, but not so well on Core 2 Duo is because the AMD processors at present do not overclock nearly as well as Core 2 Duo processors. The 9500 does not run out of steam in the overclock range of the AMD, but the C2D overclocks much further and wxceeds the effective design limits.If you look at temps closely the Zalman 9500 and 9700 cool exceptionally well at stock 2.93GHz and up to 800 MHz higher, which is well within the top speed you can achieve with air cooling of an AMD. When you go further on a C2D the 950/9700 reach their effective limit while some other heatpipe towers like the top Thermalright and Tuniq Tower 120 are still performing very well.
Deusfaux - Monday, April 16, 2007 - link
I remember you said a while back... which ones are left?Apack Zerotherm BT95? (the butterfly cooler!)
Thermalright's other new cooler? I4-FX?
anything else?
DrMrLordX - Monday, April 16, 2007 - link
Scythe Andy Samurai Master? Enzotech Ultra-X?Wesley Fink - Monday, April 16, 2007 - link
The Cooler Master Gemini II and Scythe Andy Samurai are in the labs for testing. The Enzotech Ultra X is on its way. We have also requested a Thermalright IFX-14.DrMrLordX - Tuesday, April 17, 2007 - link
Sweet. You gonna do the Big Typhoon VX as well?Pirks - Tuesday, April 17, 2007 - link
Big Typhoon beat the $rap out of almost all its competitors in overclockers.ru benches and seems to be number 1 (or at least 2) OC cooler in Russia :) too bad AT ignored it, but they will catch up, I'm sure ;)