The Test System:

• Locked AMD Athlon XP 1600+ AGOIA
• Asus A7V333 Motherboard
• 256 MB Samsung 6 ns PC2700 RAM
• GeForce 3 TI-200
• Western Digital 80 GB hard drive with 8 MB cache
• Chieftec Dragon Silver Workstation case with decent airflow (3 case fans + PSU fan)

The Tests

I will be testing this cooler against the once king of the hill “Millennium Glaciator I” all-copper cooling unit. It could be considered as a rather unfair comparison, as they are aimed at different people. However, I have a gut feeling saying that the Silent Twin will almost be able to keep up with the Glaciator, but still staying silent. Both will be tested on idle as well as using full load (Folding@home for 15 mins), and at CPU speeds:

All other options (RAM timings etc) remain unchanged throughout all tests. Only FSB speed and core voltage are adjusted.

Motherboard temperature was at all tests ~ 21C / 69F.

Overall winner as to cooling (just as expected) is the Millenium Glaciator – however, it only performs slightly better than the Silent Twin, and it operates at a much louder noise level. The Silent Twin does indeed perform very well, especially considering it is just about silent and the fact that it is not entirely made out of copper. In full load, it is easy to see that the extra weight and higher CFM fan rating of the Glaciator makes it perform better. This is no surprise, but I am sure the Silent Twin would do much better with fans of a higher CFM rating.

Conclusion

For normal use and moderate overclocking the Silent Twin is a very good choice. It offers nice performance without the irritating noise levels that normally follows with air cooling. It is fairly easy to mount and dismount and you won’t have to spend extra money on thermal paste. It combines performance, design and silence in a very good fashion. If you want good cooling for a reasonable price, and if you don’t want the loud heat sink + fan combinations available out there, the Silent Twin is definitely worth your money. It will sufficiently and quietly cool any Duron, Palomino XP or P3 available today.

Pros:

• Original design
• Good performance
• Silent
• Good clip
• Arctic Ilumina included

Cons:

• No molex connector in the package
• You will need a screwdriver to dismount the heat sink

Thanks to StudieData for sending this heat sink my way and Sverre Sjøthun from DWPG for providing two excellent pictures of the MIST Silent Twin.

Note to international users: On the 1^st of January 2003 StudieData will offer an international homepage with English content.

Allan Nielsen

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