Arctic Cooling Silencer NV 5 Review

[Clay]

wuth the nv5.. are people with the nforce 3 chipset that has the SATA plugs under the AGP slot out of luck?
IIRC, yes. Someone may correct me on that though.

[zoomy942]

dangitdangitdangitdagnit. i bought one a few days ago

[Clay]

dangitdangitdangitdagnit. i bought one a few days ago
I've wondered if there are any SATA connectors made that are designed to fit in areas like this. You know, an SATA connection that is bent at a right angle. Kind of like the "flat" power cords you can get for wall outlets used behind desks/entertainment centers/fridges/etc.

[caldas]

What is e-mail address to send my petition at arctic-cooling.com, I ordered a e-mail but no got any reply. Maybe I made a mistake about e-mail address ?

What is?

help.english@arctic-cooling.com ?
info@arctic-cooling.com ?
or
dealer@arctic-cooling.com

:(

[Clay]

Where did you purchase your NV 5? Contact them first and they'll let you know what to do next.

[caldas]

Ok, there was a known problem with the pins breaking on some of the NV5 coolers. They were too weak and later versions had stronger pins installed.

Sorry my question Clay but, where you known about this "pins breaking" ?

[Clay]

Sorry my question Clay but, where you known about this "pins breaking" ?
A few other sites that reviewed the NV 5 referred to confirmation from Arctic Cooling that the pins could break when tightening in some cases. I'd have to Google for it again. I'll post back here if I find it.

[caldas]

Thanks alot for the help Clay :)

[zoomy942]

i'll let you guys know if i have any troubel with my cooler when i get it tomorrow. i am sure i will. :)

[zoomy942]

well, i have it installed. after a ton of work.. my idle temp is the same, and my load temp is about 14 cooler. (idle..58~58) (load..85~71)

[Clay]

Sounds about right. So your SATA connections below the AGP slot won't be usalbe, correct? What kind of work did you have to do? Any grinding down of the memory pads?

[zoomy942]

well, actually those SATA are usable. the memory pads fit perfect as well. what i did was measure the size of the 2 SATA cords (bent onto themselves) cause i wasnt lacking much to make the nv5 fit. then i cut a hole just large enough for the 2 cords to fit into the nv5 enclosure by about an eigth of an inch. ten i sealed it up with Tacky Glue (my wife is a 6th grade teacher. Tacky Glue can do anything from seal hioles to repair car stereo speakers). ad the nv5 installed great. man, it took about 3 hours though. but i was determined. :)

[Clay]

well, actually those SATA are usable. the memory pads fit perfect as well. what i did was measure the size of the 2 SATA cords (bent onto themselves) cause i wasnt lacking much to make the nv5 fit. then i cut a hole just large enough for the 2 cords to fit into the nv5 enclosure by about an eigth of an inch. ten i sealed it up with Tacky Glue (my wife is a 6th grade teacher. Tacky Glue can do anything from seal hioles to repair car stereo speakers). ad the nv5 installed great. man, it took about 3 hours though. but i was determined. :)
Sounds like a nice mod job! I've gotta pull this out though...

(w/opics)

:D

[xpanmanx]

Please, will someone summarize exactly how to distinguish the NV Silencer 5 Rev 2 from the Rev 1 (hopefully without opening the retail packaging)?

[Clay]

Please, will someone summarize exactly how to distinguish the NV Silencer 5 Rev 2 from the Rev 1 (hopefully without opening the retail packaging)?

If the requested information is in this thread, I apologize for missing it during review.
Unfortunately the answer you're looking for is not in this thread nor in the review. There is a great deal of confusion as to how to know for sure. As soon as someone can find a defininitive answer I'm sure it will be posted here though.

[Electronic Punk]

Well from what I can tell:

rev.1 boxshot:
http://www.arctic-cooling.com/pics/nv5_07h.jpg
rev.2 boxshot:
http://www.arctic-cooling.com/pics/nv5r2_07h.jpg (note the addition of pcie notes)

Obviously the rev.1 was introduced first (I promise!) and rev.2 was released (and is identical?) to clear up confusion for PCI-X users and to also include the additional backplate they had initially forgotten in the original release (although some did seem to come with it and they also mention that online retailers might have it in their FAQ .. a bit weird ...

The exhaust from the cooler is blocked by the two-slot back plate of my original 6800 card. How can I make your cooler compatible to this card?
We do have a replacement bracket for the 6800 series to solve the double bracket issue. Please request for such a bracket from your local dealer.

I have two rev.1 (second was an attempt to get a rev.2 that went wrong), I was a little digruntled as I have a fairly similar setup to Clay but he had higher clocks and lower temps! So I mirror Clays guide the lazy way, I didn't need to do any sanding and now my results are very simiar. I am pretty sure Clay has rev.1 as well (looking at his box) - but at the end of the day I don't think there will be any differences in performance/result between rev.1 and 2. Really want that extra backplate tho, had to make my own and well, it looks pretty bad at the moment :)

[ToastyBoy]

Great review....I just put one on my Gainward GT golden sample. So far, I'm very pleased with the temps and the fact that its so quiet. Even throttled down to 50% in 2D and 75% in 3D, the noise of the gainward stock fans was driving me crazy. The NV5 is virtually silent in comparason. And since it exhausts its own hot air I was able to get rid of the slot fan I was using AND reduce the speed of my 2 front intake fans to their medium setting. My idle temp went from around 52 to about 49 and load temps went from around 72 to 68. Installation was a little tricky. I wasn't getting good GPU contact at first. It got better once I dremmeled down the fins on that voltage regulator heatsink and cranked the mounting screws as much as I dared to. It's still not perfect. But when I have more time and get the proper sanding supplies, I'll do it right.

[smargi]

In this review this is not the real rev.2 I just got mine today it different from the one in this review it have a x plate in the back like the original nvidia that came with the card and some kind of thermal pads for the memory instead of using the AS5 or the grease that came with the rev.2..!

[Clay]

In this review this is not the real rev.2 I just got mine today it different from the one in this review it have a x plate in the back like the original nvidia that came with the card and some kind of thermal pads for the memory instead of using the AS5 or the grease that came with the rev.2..!
I'm aware of that. That's why I removed any references to a mine being a "Rev 2" in the review or not about three weeks ago. :) I forgot to change the title of this thread but have done so now.

So, how do you like the NV 5? Did you get good initial contact with the GPU?

[smargi]

it must have I didn't try to take it off after I install it to see the contact (but I will) with the GPU but according to the temp it doing a great job I have asus 6800ultra pci-e and the idle temp before was 48c and now 42c..! One think I like to see is a review for this product the ver.2 one vs the new zalman vf-700cu this should be interesting.

[iamthehendrix]

i have a problem with both my silencers, little heat being exhausted. my temperatures for both cards are different. one runs at 71C idle and the other runs at 66C idle. I had 38C idle for both with stock cooling, but i didnt know the silencer 5s were this "strange." I emailed arctic cooling support and heres what i got.



We have no idea what could be wrong either.
But I have heard from users that face similar issue, but at the end we find that it was because the fan impeller was interference with the card in the lower slot which stop the fan from turning sometimes.
Please check if everything was well placed inside the casing.

Best Regards
________________________
Stanley Cheung
ARCTIC COOLING Support


I dont quite understand what hes trying to tell me. that theres...wires in the fan propeller??? or that theres something blocking the fan? no, my fans are working and blowing air down rather than out. (barely any air behind exhausted) theres also a good 1 to 2 inches between the fan and anything else. this boggles my mind. When my AS 5 comes in the mail, im going to do the contact test. my...fourth time doing it.... ill post pictures in a couple mins

edit: heres this pic

[Pixelsmack]

I still can't over how frick'in gnarly an SLI setup looks!

P.S. As I wrote earlierm my NV5 buzzed like mad. Had a bad motor.

[Clay]

i have a problem with both my silencers, little heat being exhausted. my temperatures for both cards are different. one runs at 71C idle and the other runs at 66C idle. I had 38C idle for both with stock cooling, but i didnt know the silencer 5s were this "strange." I emailed arctic cooling support and heres what i got.



We have no idea what could be wrong either.
But I have heard from users that face similar issue, but at the end we find that it was because the fan impeller was interference with the card in the lower slot which stop the fan from turning sometimes.
Please check if everything was well placed inside the casing.

Best Regards
________________________
Stanley Cheung
ARCTIC COOLING Support


I dont quite understand what hes trying to tell me. that theres...wires in the fan propeller??? or that theres something blocking the fan? no, my fans are working and blowing air down rather than out. (barely any air behind exhausted) theres also a good 1 to 2 inches between the fan and anything else. this boggles my mind. When my AS 5 comes in the mail, im going to do the contact test. my...fourth time doing it.... ill post pictures in a couple mins

edit: heres this pic
I don't have much to add at the moment but I can say that it is normal/expected in SLI setups for one card (usually the top) to run quite a bit warmer than the other card.

[iamthehendrix]

ok since i had a couple hours of free time, i decided to reapply the thermal paste on the card. I used the oh so glorious, AS 5 on the gpu as thin as possible using a razor. (i cleaned the previous thermal paste using the arctic cleaning kit). Im getting higher temperature readings than the last time.

I read on the AS5 that it takes 200 hours before it starts working properly. Im wondering if during the 200 hours of break in time will the card be this hot?

GPU 1 IDLE 82C
LOAD 94C

GPU 2 IDLE 79C
LOAD 86C


edit: for a split second i thought the high temps could have been occuring due to a crappy cpu cooler, so i went out and bought an arctic freezer 64... man...disapointment again... same cpu temps almost... like... 2 degrees lower than the masscool generic cooler. and the blasted freezer64 doesnt even cover all of the amd fx-55 chip surface area!
pic:

[Electronic Punk]

Eek, what is your case temp?