Compatibility and installation
Evercool Silent Shark is compatible with
all modern platforms, as well as LGA 775. Step by step installation
instructions is provided in the manual (a PDF file, 9.69 MB). We will talk
about the characteristics of the installation process of Evercool Silent Shark by
using LGA 2011 platform as an example. However, it is nothing new here, since
it is very similar to the installation procedure for other LGA 2011 coolers.
The first thing you do is put retention mounts into the bracket holes:
Installation
process Image
After that the steel rails are attached to
these mounts. There are threaded studs in the middle of each rail:
Installation
process Image
The last but not the least is to apply a
layer of thermal paste and set the cooler on top of the processor. It should be
pressed evenly against the microprocessor by tightening two spring screws in
the cooler itself. Of course, it must be done after the plastic cap of the fan
has been removed, if not, you will not be able to access the screws. In other
words, you install the heatsink first and then the fan.
TThe clearance between the lowest heatsink
fin and the mainboard PCB is 50 mm, but the fans hang another 10 mm below the
lower fin, so the exterior fan can theoretically conflict with the tall
heat-spreaders on the memory modules:
When
the installation is complete
At this point, it is important to remember
that heatsink may be raised 30 degrees higher, so that its airflow is directed
towards the memory modules and voltage regulator heatsinks. In this case no
matter what it will not interfere with the installation of the cooler.
Evercool Silent Shark cooler looks pretty
big when installed into the computer system due to the decorative plastic top:
When
installed on the computer
Even so, as you can see above, the main
body of the heatsink is not huge.
Configuration and testing methodology
We've tested the whole cooling device in a
closed system case with the following configurations:
·
Motherboard: Intel Sliler DX79SI (Intel X79
Express, LGA 2011, BIOS 0537 from 07/23/2012)
·
CPU: Intel Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition, 3.3
GHz, 1.2 V, 6x256 KB L2, 15 MB L3 (Sandy Bridge-E, C1, 32 nm)
·
Thermal interface: ARCTIC MX-4
·
Graphics card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 650 Ti 2 GB
(GV-N65TOC-2GI)
·
System memory: DDR3 4x4GB Mushkin Redline (Spec:
2133 MHz/ 9-11-10-28/ 1.65 V)
·
System hard drive: Crucial m4 256 GB SSD
·
Drive for programs and games: Western Digital
VelociRaptor (300GB, SATA-II, 10,000 RPM, 16MB cache, NCQ) inside Scythe Quiet
Drive 3.5’’ HDD silencer and cooler
·
Backup drive: Samsung Ecogreen F4 HD204UI
?(SATA-II, 2 TB, 5,400 RPM, 32 MB, NCQ)
·
System case: Antec Twelvw Hundred (front panel:
3 Noiseblocker NB-Multiframe S-Series MF 12-S2 fans (1,020 RPM); back panel: 2
Noiseblocker NB-BlackSilent PRO PL-1 fans (1,020 RPM); top panel: 200 mm
default fan (400RPM)
·
Control panel: Zalman ZM-MFC3
·
Power supply: Seasonic SS-1000XP Active PFC F13
1,000 W (with 120 mm default fan)
Preparing for the
test today, we overclocked our six-core processor with the clock generator
frequency set at 125 MHz, the multiplier at 34x and “Load-Line Calibration”
enabled to 4.375 GHz. The nominal Vcore of the processor was raised to 1,385 V
in the mainboard BIOS. The "Turbo Boost" technology was disabled
during this testing process, and the Hyper-Threading technology was enabled to
increase heat dissipation. Memory voltage was at 1.65 V and its frequency is 2,000
MHz with timing parameters is 9-11-10-28. All other configuraitons are
available in the mainboard BIOS and related to the overclocking process of the
CPU or memory remained unchanged.
All tests were conducted under Windows 7
Ultimate x64 SP1 operating system. We used the following software during our
experiment:
·
Linx AVX Edition version 0.6.4 - to load the
processor (memory - 4500 MB, Problem Size - 24 234, 2 11-minutes cycles)
·
Real Temp GT version 3.70 - to control the processor
core temperatures
·
Intel Extreme Tuning utility version 3.1.105.5 -
for monitoring and visual control all system parameters during the overclocking
process
Therefore, the complete
screenshot during the testing process looks like this:
Testing
process screenshot
The CPU was loaded with two consecutive
LinX AVX test runs with the settings as indicated above. The stabilization
period for the CPU temperature between the two test cycles was about 8-10
minutes. We took the highest temperature of the CPU core for the results
chart. Moreover, we also offered a table with temperature parameters for all
cores including their average values. The ambient temperature was checked next
to the system case with an electronic thermometer with 0.1°C precision that
allows hourly monitoring of the temperature changes during the past 6 hours.
The room temperature during our experiment varied between 23.6 and 24.0°C.
The noise level of the cooling device was
measured between 1:00 and 3:00 AM in a big closed room about 20 m2 by using CENTER-321
electronic noise meter. The noise level of each cooler was tested outside the
system case when the only noise sources in the lab were the cooler and its fan.
The noise meter was mounted on a tripod and 150mm away from the fan impeller.
The examined cooling system was placed at the edge of the table on a sheet of
polyurethane foam. The lowest noise parameter that our noise meter can read is
29.8 dBA and the subjectively comfortable noise level in these testing
conditions was around 36 dBA (do not mix it up with low noise level). The
rotational speed of the impellers were adjusted in entire supported range of
in-house controller by changing the voltage with 0.5 V increment.
The
voltage regulator
Just like our recent Zalman LQ315 review,
we have calculated the cost of Evercool Silent Shark cooler ($75), when we
choose an opponent for it. We decided to take Phanteks PH-TC14PE ($ 79) which
is equipped with two 140 mm fans by default:
Phanteks
PH-TC14PE
Besides its default fan, Evercool Silent
Shark was also tested with two alternative 120 mm Corsair SP120 High
Performance Edition fans:
Phanteks
PH-TC14PE
The rotation speed of all fans was
controlled using the same special controller I mentioned above with ±10 RPM
precision and 200 RPM increments.
