Arctic Cooling is a well known company, providing thermal cooling solutions with reduced noise levels for GPUs (Graphic Processing Unit) and CPUs (Central Processing Unit) in personal computer systems. It is already a standard solution for a lot of graphics card manufacturers like HiS, Galaxy and Sapphire.

In this review we are going to test the NV Silencer 5, a VGA cooling solution for NVidia's 6800GT and Ultra versions with both AGP and PCI-E interface. You can find the NV Silencer in six different versions, depending on the VGA card you want to use it with.

Features

Easier Installation (for Rev.2)
New clip and back plate design for better fit.

Enhanced Compatibility (for Rev.2)
New fan casing design to enhance compatibility.

Clicking Noise Solution (for Rev.2)
A filter is integrated into the PCB to reduce the noise generated from the motor.

Extremely quiet
A large fan and optimized fan blades offer minimum noise level at a high air flow.

Unique Cooling Performance
Highest fin surface area and a 3.5 mm thick copper base achieve best cooling performance at its noise level.

Efficient Memory Cooling
With this highly efficient heatsink the memories get cooled up to 6 times better than without memory cooling.

High Service Life (L10 at 30°C: 274000h)
Our ARCTIC Ceramic Bearing (alloy bearing and Ceramic shaft) provides our fans with an outstanding service life.

6 Years Warranty

DHES (Direct Heat Exhaust System)
The DHES draws cool air from inside the case and exhausts warm air outwards. This prevents the fan from recycling warm air to cool the
GPU, which increases cooling performance. Furthermore, the DHES lowers the air temperature inside the case because the heat
from the GPU will be directed out directly.

We have reviewed quite a few products from Artic-Cooling in the past and we could say that all products are characterized by their high quality and design while the company pays extra attention to the installation procedure in order to make it easier for the customer.

The case we received had no separate thermal compound bundled since it is already in place on the copper base.

Here are the detailed specifications as provided by Arctic-Cooling:

*Noise Level
All measurements are taken using full fan speed.
The noise level is measured in Sone (loudness) instead of dB (sound pressure).
The loudness depends upon the ear's response curves and tells you exactly how bothering a certain noise is. Sone takes the frequency and bandwidth of a sound into account.
A doubling of the number of Sones sounds to the human ear like a doubling of the loudness.
The comparison of products from different manufacturers is basically impossible, since all manufacturers measure in different ways. Even a rough translation from Sone to dB doesn't help. A 15dB cooler can be louder than a 1 Sone cooler from another manufacturer.

Nevertheless with Sone data, you can compare coolers with each other and get a quite precise idea of how annoying the product will be.
1 Sone:     nearly inaudible in a computer case
2 Sones:   clearly audible
3 Sones and more:  disturbing