Subjective Tests:

These test are the main tests I do on any aftermarket part that I am planning on using in a build. If they don’t sound or feel "right" I bin them and use alternatives. Whether that means a completely different brand or just another one from a different batch greatly depends on the priorities of the build (i.e. noise vs. performance vs. longevity vs. style vs. cost).


Finger Spin Test:

Just as the name suggests I give the unplugged fan a quick spin with my right hand index finger while holding it vertically in my left. This is done to see how much friction a fan produces (via the length of time it takes to stop and perceived speed at which it rotates); but mainly it is done to feel how well balanced the fan is. If the fan feels unstable then it is most likely unbalanced. This fan may have a drastically reduced life expectancy and may catastrophically fail taking other computer parts with it.

The Silentator’s fan did not produce any of the telltales that occur in poorly made fans (wobble, ticking, clicking, etc). Overall it felt fairly balanced and smooth for a double ball bearing design.


Noise and Vibration:

While holding the heatsink and fan in my left hand, I plug in the fan into a 3 to 4 pin molex adapter and then turn on the computer. This way the fan is running at full speed and I can easily feel for any vibration it creates and listen for any noise. I do this while holding the heatsink in the orientation that it will be when installed. In this instance, I held it vertically.

The SWif 1202 was very quiet and didn’t create many felt vibrations. In my opinion those two pieces of vibration dampening material installed on the heatsink do a very good job of isolating any vibrations created. When installed in a CoolerMaster CM 690 case the Silentator was not audible over any of the Scythe E’s. This is a laudable accomplishment that few CPU coolers we have tested in the past can claim.


Tap Test:

While holding the heatsink and fan in my left had I gently “tap” both the heatsink and then the fan. In the case of the heatsink it allows you to hear and feel how well made it is.

In the Silentator’s heatsink the aluminum fins felt very durable and solid to me. While I am sure that the fins can be damaged, it would take a lot of negligence to necessitate that level of violence.

As for the SWiF 1202, it had very little shaft “slop” or forwards and backwards motion to the fan blade assembly and felt very tight. However, the fan displayed a lot of angular slop when pushed/tapped on only one side of the fan . This combination makes for a fan that as the bearings age and become “looser” has an increased potential to become off balance and even unstable.


Weight and Construction:

This test consists mainly on how it "feels" in your hands.

While nowhere near as heavy as some behemoths that I have used in the past, the Silentator felt fairly light and I would have guessed its weight at about a pound. In reality the Silentator with one fan weighs in at about 640grams, or to put it another way it is about 140grams more than the Intel recommended max weight for Socket 775 CPU coolers. This is not a big deal as the backplate does provide more than enough rigidity to handle the extra stress.


In fact, the Silentator is built like a tank; there is no corner cutting or value orientated construction here. The Coolink engineers went so far as to solder the heatpipes to both the copper base and the fins. Not only does this significantly increase surface contact area (and thus an increase in heat transfer) it provides a lot of extra strength and rigidity to the whole unit. This is not a unit where everything is loosely held together, rather its more like one huge hunk of copper and aluminum that happens to look like a normal tower heatsink.

It is sad to say but the fan itself is another matter all together. The fan looks and feels a bit cheap and so did its clear fan case. In the case of the frame this is simply an allusion as it is just as strong as one would expect it to be, though a couple of LEDs would have made a it look a lot better. After all if you are going to leave the frame of the fan clear it is usually done for a reason. Since no LEDs are included I would say that the clear plastic is cheaper to make than the “coloured” plastic and this was one way Coolink was able to keep costs to a minimum.

Unfortunately the somewhat cheap feeling of the fan blades does not just come from the fact that they are made from a very malleable plastic but also from the fact that the blades themselves are not smooth or “clean”. I am not talking minor imperfections here, rather each and every blade as a very rough finish to it. Luckily the most important “wind” side of the blades are a lot smoother than the backside so air turbulence will be minimal, but the very fact that a fan that looks so unfinished made it past Coolink’s quality control department does not instill confidence in the Silentator fan’s longevity.

While there may be some concerns about the fans long term viability and level of quality, in general Coolink appears to have made more good calls than bad with the Silentator’s construction.