Arctic Cooling Silentium T3 ECO 80 review

The verdict

I must say that I am pretty impressed by the Silentium T3. When you combine all factors the end-result is quite positive. What AC needs to work on is the design though. It's a little flat, a little too basic. If they could shave off these rough edges .. the product would probably sell like hot buns from the oven. But it's the design that will steer people away.

A complete black design for example would be very suitable for HTPC users. So who knows the T4 model will be styled differently. Also I would advise AC to look into a full-tower.

Other then that everything is really positive. The space inside the chassis okay, but considering this is a mid-tower, pretty normal. AC did and excellent job in thinking through the optimal airflow path and optimized that to the maximum by placing the PSU in the lower compartment and inserting two silent fans directly on the spot where heat rises to. Then there's the intricate detail, the rubber fan mounts, the HDD muffler and when you combine all facts there's nothing other to conclude that it does as advertised .. it's awfully silent.

Also a pleasure is the efficient power supply. The 8-pin CPU header aside, I think it's pretty good. The efficiency shines as well. Combined with a Q6600 processor, 2 GB DDR2, one HDD and GF9300 motherboard in idle for example we noticed 86 Watt of power consumption. Which is pretty good as well.

So yeah, there you have it. The design could be lifted up a little. I think for AC to succeed the need to let go of the integration of their house color schema for the chassis design. That aside, the chassis is very silent and complete, and as such comes recommended. I virtually could not hear the unit whatesoever .. which has got to be the biggest compliment this chassis can get.

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