Written By:
Date Posted: July 22, 2002

Introduction

I don't know about you but I'm personally getting tired of listening to the noise from my PC. Using it 24/7 means there is constantly a background hum, and for those people who, like me, are using there computers in the bedroom, this can make sleep very difficult. About a year ago I had a "High" performance cooler complete with a Delta screamer fan. I wasn't to impressed overall, as the performance wasn't outstanding but what really got on my nerves was the noise. As soon as I could I got a Swiftech MC462 and an 80mm fan from Coolermaster. This wasn't cheap, but I had heard great things about this cooler. It reduced my temperatures a hell of a lot and the noise level was reduced by half. At the same time it put a pretty large dent in my wallet.

I'm not the only one out there who wants a quiet PC and some manufacturers are starting to realise this and cater for those with a desire for low noise whilst retaining good cooling. is one such company and have very kindly sent us for review the Silver Mountain 2Q Quiet cooler. AKASA believes that the properties of this cooler are good enough to allow proper cooling with a quiet fan. Well were about to find out for ourselves here at the lair. Many thanks to for providing the review sample you see here today.

Features

Supports AMD Athlon" 1.7GHz
Supports AMD Athlon" XP 2200+
Pure Copper Heatsink with
Silver Plating
Sanyo Denki Ball Bearing Fan
Fan Rated Speed 4,600 R.P.M.
Fan Air Flow 23 CFM
Fan Noise 33 dB(A)
DIM 72 X 60 X 65 mm

First looks

Upon opening the box, you can see the Sanyo Denki fan on top of the HSF, sitting nicely in its very well protected packaging. You can see that AKASA have thought about saving one's fingers and included a grill on the fan too. That may be a minor point to some, but I personally find it a very welcome and good idea. After taking the HSF out of the box I noticed the silver plating. The entire heatsink is plated in silver, and it looks absolutely stunning. This is certainly one the best looking HSF's I have seen and aesthetically, it begs to be shown off. There is a protective shroud on top between the heatsink and the fan, which has a round opening to allow the air to get to the fins of the cooler from the fan.

Moving to the bottom of the HSF you can see yet more silver which gives it a mirror like finish. There are a few slight imperfections, but they are only really noticeable under close scrutiny with a magnifying glass. There's certainly not enough of the "swirls" on the bottom to make me want to lap the sink and the silver plating would kind of deny you the opportunity to do this anyway.

Being all copper this sink is quite heavy, and again AKASA have thought about this. Some of the HSF's out that you buy are heavy but only include a standard clipping mechanism which attaches to one lug on each side of the socket. AKASA has employed a clip which attaches to all three lugs on each side. It's a very simple cooler to fit, all you do is use a screw driver on one side to lever the clip into place over the socket lugs. You will also notice there is already a Thermal Interface Material patch on the bottom. Most people will scrape this off and use an aftermarket TIM such as Artic Silver. However AKASA has thought about this too. The TIM employed here is of the Shin Etsu variety, which is also used by Intel on there standard coolers. I'll be testing this against Artic Silver 2 to see if this Shin Etsu TIM makes a difference or not.

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