SilverStone Argon Series AR01 CPU Cooler Review

1. Introduction2. Packaging & Bundle3. Installation4. Testing Methodology5. Thermal Dynamics6. Acoustics Performance7. Closing Thoughts8. View All Pages

Taking into consideration the AR01's price point and target audience we are using an Intel Core i7 3770k running at stock speeds and overclocked to 4.2GHz with our voltage set at 1.224v.

Test System:

Processor: Intel Core i7 3770k
Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-V LX2
Memory: 16GB G.Skill Ares Blue
Graphics Card: Sapphire HD 7790 2GB GDDR5 OC
Power Supply: OCZ ZT Series 550W
Chassis: Cooler Master Silencio 650 Pure
Monitor: Acer X243HQ
Boot Drive: Intel SSD 510
Storage Drive: 2TB Seagate Barracuda

 Software:

CPUID HW Monitor 1.23
CPUID CPU-Z 1.65
Prime95 v27.1

We are testing the AR01's performance as follows:

• Ambient temperatures are kept at 22° throughout our tests.
• The CPU Fan is set to 100% to eliminate inconsistencies as a result of PWM control.
• Idle temperatures are obtained after booting the PC and idling on the desktop for 30 minutes.
• Load temperatures are obtained after running Prime95's Small FTTs test for 15 minutes.
• To measure noise levels we disable the two front in-take fans, rear exhaust and GPU fan.

CPU-Z Validation is available here.

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