LGA775 Heatsink Group Test

Asus Silent Square Pro:

CPU Socket Support: AMD 940 / 939 / 754 / AM2, Intel LGA775, Intel S478;
Weight: 713g
Size: 120mm x 105mm x 158mm

Price (as reviewed): £29.60 (inc VAT)

The Silent Square Pro is a large tower of aluminium fins covered in an orange aluminium shroud. There is an 80mm fan mounted inside the tower of fins which spins at around 2,500RPM. The cooler makes use of five heatpipes that run from the top of the array of fins, right down through the base and then back to the top of the cooler.

The bundle includes the same universal mounting system that is used for the Silent Knight and, in addition, you also get a 3.5” drive bay fan speed controller.

Installation:

Asus has used the same mounting system that comes with the Silent Knight, with the only difference being the heatsink’s base design. The instruction booklet is also very similar too. Unfortunately, it has the same error where eight silver screws are supplied in the box, but only four are mentioned in the manual.


In an attempt to learn from my experience with the Silent Knight, I tried the shorter screws first. Of course, in this case it was the longer four that are needed for an LGA775 installation. Typical!

The mounting clip needed some serious effort to lock down, but felt solid enough to survive repeated use. Happily, this led to the best mounting pressure in this group of heatsinks, allowing no rotation on the socket at all. Finally, there were no clearance issues to report, even on the Asus Striker Extreme.

Performance:

The Silent Square Pro performed pretty well and came in a close third behind the CNPS9700LED and the NH-U12F. There was only 4.4°C difference in CPU temperature between the top three performers under load and PWM temperatures were also reasonable on the Silent Square Pro too. The cooler wasn't the quietest on test, but it was far from loud - there was no fan whine and a little air noise coming out of it.

Conclusion:

If we ignore the Zalman CNPS9700LED's incredibly noisy full speed results, the Silent Square Pro performs pretty well in comparison, with the loaded CPU temperature only 2°C higher than what was recorded with the Noctua NH-U12F and 2.4°C warmer than the CNPS9700LED. At around £5-10 cheaper than the competition, the Silent Square Pro is an attractive purchase, but there is a combination of misleading documentation and a confusing mounting system that puts us off it a little.