SilentiumPC Fortis 5 & Fortis 5 Dual Review

1. SilentiumPC Fortis 5 & Fortis 5 Dual2. Test Results3. Closing Thoughts4. View All Pages

We have already examined the Fera 5 Dual from SilentiumPC and were thoroughly impressed by what the relative newcomer to the CPU cooling market had to offer. Now we are taking a look at the company’s higher-end heatsink offerings; the single-fan, £50 Fortis 5 and the dual-fan, £55 Fortis 5 Dual.

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SilentiumPC Fortis 5 & Fortis 5 Dual

In terms of accessories, SilentiumPC provides compatibility for modern Intel and AMD sockets (except TR4), a small tube of thermal paste is included, and both coolers get clips for dual fan setups.

Of course, only the Fortis 5 Dual comes with two fans. But other than that, the products are basically the same.

Starting out with a look at the heatsink itself, SilentiumPC utilises a standard aluminium fin array and chooses not to coat the fins to change their colour. There is a black plastic top shroud for some added visual pizzazz, though.

Fin spacing is not particularly dense, so there are clear signs of this heatsink being optimised for low-speed, low-noise fan usage. The heatsink is heavily asymmetric by design but there is clear guidance as to which orientation should be used; the flat side at the front – DIMM – side.

Dimensions wise, the fin array is 159mm tall, by 144mm wide, by 82mm thick. Though it doesn’t fill that entire thickness dimension because of the curved backside shaping of the array.

Running through the aluminium fin array are six 6mm diameter copper heatpipes. These are actually nickel-plated copper for improved appearance and corrosion resistance. Not that you really see them with that plastic top cover on the cooler. Though, the Heatpipe Direct Touch base shaves down the nickel plating and is bare copper for preferential heat transfer. Offset alignment of the heatpipes is used to try to distribute heat around the fin array.

By default, the Fortis 5 comes with a Fluctus 140 fan, but the Fortis 5 dual adds on a Fluctus 120 secondary fan. The Fluctus 140 PWM fan operates at 300-1400 RPM, which is an impressive control range, even if somewhat moderate speed at the top end. The Fluctus 120 PWM fan on the Fortis 5 Dual also runs at 300-1400 RPM, which is quite slow at the top-end for a 120mm unit.

Importantly, the low-speed values that the fans can run at give them strong semi-passive operation abilities. If your motherboard can support semi-passive cooling, these fans should also be able to do it.

Both fans utilise Fluid Dynamic Bearings and quote a MTBF of 100,000 hours. This – impressively – gives SilentiumPC the confidence to back up the cooler with an impressive 6-year warranty.

The mounting hardware is easy to install. Threaded stand-offs are screwed into the default AM4 backplate before a metal mounting plate is screwed into position. Thermal paste can then be applied before the cooler is sat and screwed into position.

Then, the fans can be attached via their metal clips. And you can daisy-chain the fan connectors if you’re short on motherboard headers.

The final mount is secure and looks good in my opinion, and the solidity of the installation is strong.

Thanks to the cooler’s asymmetric and offset design, there is plenty of room for graphics cards. And tall memory modules stand a slightly higher chance of fitting, though don’t necessarily count on this with the market’s biggest sticks! Do watch out for interference with tall VRM heatsinks on the rear-IO side, though.

Oh, and if you want any form of lighting, you’ll have to opt for the slightly more expensive – £60 – Fortis 5 ARGB single-fan version.

Test System:

• Processor: AMD Ryzen 9 5950X
• Overclocked Settings: 4.45GHz all-core @ 1.312V (UEFI), Medium LLC – around 1.3V delivered
• Motherboard: Gigabyte B550 Aorus Master
• Memory: 32GB (2x16GB) Corsair Vengeance LPX 3600MHz 16-18-18-36 DDR4 @ 1.35V
• Graphics Card: Gigabyte RTX 2060 Super 0dB Mode
• Chassis: Fractal Design Meshify 2
• Chassis Fans: 2x140mm 1000 RPM Fractal Front Intake, 1x140mm 1000 RPM Fractal Rear Exhaust, 1x140mm 1000 RPM be quiet! Pure Wings 2 Roof Exhaust (for air cooler testing)
• Power Supply: Seasonic Prime TX-1000
• Operating System: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit

Testing Methodology:

• For testing, we use a 30-minute looped run of Cinebench R23 and record the steady-state CPU temperature at the end of the test. This ensures that the CPU has had ample time to warm up and reach steady state under all of the coolers.
• Ambient is maintained around 22-24 degrees Celsius. Where there is variation beyond this temperature range, we add in extra repeated tests to ensure consistency.
• We also test each cooler with at least two fresh installs (typically three) to mitigate the likelihood of a dodgy mount spoiling results.

Test Results:

Acoustics

Let’s start off with noise performance at 100% fan speed. This is important for getting an indication of where our performance expectations should lie based on noise output.

With an all-round design focused on minimising noise output, it comes as little surprise to see the SilentiumPC Fortis 5 offering superb acoustic results.

With both the single-fan and dual-fan versions rounding to 39 dBA, the SilentiumPC Fortis 5 and Fortis 5 Dual clearly offer exceptional noise performance even at full fan speed. This is a strong testament to the quality of the included fans, albeit with their low top speed rating.

Typically, we would include some reference to 40dBA noise-locked test data. But the SilentiumPC Fortis 5 and Fortis 5 Dual are so quiet at 100% fan speed, that this is not necessary.

We only usually see this type of behaviour with mid-range level, low-noise coolers. So it will be interesting to see if the Fortis 5 can also handle the heat, or whether than fan speeds are just too low for the required level of cooling.

Thermal Performance

With the data entered into our high-end CPU cooler chart, it comes as no surprise to see the Fortis 5 and Fortis 5 Dual positioned where they are. But we have to take a closer look at the results to see the true picture.

All coolers operate at full fan speed in this test, so the fact that SilentiumPC’s single-tower units are able to somewhat keep pace with the bigger dual-tower or dual-fan air coolers, as well as multi-fan AIOs, is impressive.

A comparison versus the Arctic Freezer 50 shows SilentiumPC winning handsomely. And the Fortis 5 Dual performance isn’t too far from the Noctua NH-D15 on our AMD test platform.

With 40dBA noise-locked performance, we do not see any change in the results from the Fortis 5 and Fortis 5 Dual as they were already below this level. However, the margins of performance deficit to some of the bigger and more expensive coolers are no squeezed.

The Arctic Freezer 50 cannot handle this task and therefore drops out of our chart. And some of the 240mm AIOs are within touching distance of the Fortis 5 and Fortis 5 Dual’s numbers when restricted to 40dBA noise output.

This shows off the low-noise operating prowess of the affordable SilentiumPC coolers. Though that roughly £55 Deepcool AS500 Plus continues to be a formidable competitor. And the Cougar Aqua 240 is not very expensive either.

PBO shows a tangible gap in performance between the Fortis 5 and Fortis 5 Dual versus the likes of the Noctua NH-D15, even on our AM4 test platform.

With that said, the Fortis 5 units are perfectly capable of holding their own versus the realistic competitors; Arctic’s Freezer 50 is beaten comfortably and be quiet!’s low-noise optimised Shadow Rock 3 is a notable level of performance behind the SilentiumPC offerings.

Handling 213W of Ryzen 9 5950X package power is a solid result by the Fortis 5.

VRM cooling is absolutely fine at full fan speed. Though, the 40 dBA noise-locked performance comparison is particularly favourable towards SilentiumPC’s coolers.

I was a little disappointed to see the Fortis 5 Dual only dropping MOSFET temperatures by a single degree with its extra fan. This would be one factor in making me think that the upgrade from the Fortis 5 to the Fortis 5 Dual is perhaps not necessary.

It looks like SilentiumPC is making a lot of good decisions with its CPU cooling products. We liked the budget Fera 5 Dual and we also like the lower-noise orientated Fortis 5 and Fortis 5 Dual that we tested today.

We will focus our analysis on the Fortis 5 single fan version – this looks to be the best option in our eyes. Even though the dual fan version is only £5 or 10% more expensive, it doesn’t really deliver a noteworthy performance boost.

The raw cooling performance offered by the SilentiumPC Fortis 5 is strong. When factoring in its impressively low noise operation, the thermal results become even more reasonable. Plus, £50 for this type of air CPU cooler with low noise design is actually quite acceptable.

We can’t really point the finger at too many downsides. I would say that the dual fan model was a bit disappointing in its (lack of) notable performance improvement. And perhaps performance junkies won’t really value the noise-balanced operation, hoping for higher performance at this price point.

The aesthetics are also basic, but that will be a positive to many people. Especially as there is an ARGB option available, albeit at £60.

£50 for an air cooler is getting to the point where the market is competitive. You’ll sometimes even see dual-tower or dual-fan coolers dropping to this price level. But, we feel that the Fortis 5 from SilentiumPC delivers a good set of noise-balanced thermal results.

It’s not quite the bargain that its cheaper Fera 5 sibling is, but I do think that the SilentiumPC Fortis 5 is worthy of recommendation, especially with such impressive low noise operation.

The SilentiumPC Fortis 5 and Fortis 5 Dual sell for £49.99 and £54.98, respectively, at Scan.

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Pros:

• Excellent low-noise operation even at 100% fan speed
• Good overall cooling capacity for a roughly £50 cooler
• Strong build quality with a positive 6-year warranty
• Wide range of control for fan speed operation
• Some offset/asymmetric design points to limit interference
• Very easy mounting approach

Cons:

• More noise-balanced than raw cooling junkies will care for
• Aesthetic design is basic for around £50, though this may appeal to some
• Dual-fan cooler doesn’t offer much performance gain

KitGuru says: Superb low-noise operation alongside competent cooling performance make the SilentiumPC Fortis 5 desirable. We like the single-fan version at a smidge under £50.

 

SilentiumPC Fortis 5 score:

SilentiumPC Fortis 5 Dual score:

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