| Arctic Cooling Silentium T2 ATX Case - Page 4 of 4 |
Power Supply Performance
This case's unique design requires a uniquely designed power supply. Arctic Cooling has included the Seasonic / Arctic 450 (350W continuous). Arctic Cooling reports that it has a high efficiency, which would require a 500W power supply to provide the same amount of continuous power this power supply provides. I will see whether the power supply really holds up to this claim.
To test the Seasonic / Arctic 450, I installed it in the following system:
• AMD Athlon XP 2800
• 2 x 512mb 2700 DDR
• Shuttle AN35N motherboard (default settings)
• PNY Geforce FX 5600 Ultra video card
• WD 200GB SE hard drive
• Sony DRU 500A
• Sony DVD-Rom
• 4 x 80mm LED Fans (used only during voltage readings)
• Sound Blaster Live (used only during voltage readings)
• 2 x Cold Cathode lights (used only during voltage readings)
• Netgear Lan Card (used only during voltage readings)
• WD 160GB hard drive (used only during voltage readings)
• WD 200GB SE hard drive (used only during voltage readings)
• Case Temperature at 20.5C
To take the load voltages, the following applications were run for several hours:
• EverQuest 2
• Folding@Home 4.0
• World of Warcraft
The chart below lists the idle and load voltages I received:
As you can see the power is pretty stable, operating near the optimum voltages. The 12V rail dipped slightly below the 12V's it's supposed to carry.
With all the components listed above installed for the readings, I was well over what the power supply should be able to handle. Using an online Power Supply estimator I had enough components installed to need at least a 360W power supply. I connected the Antec 365W power supply I have, and the video card reported it was not receiving enough power to operate correctly. I never received this message when using the Seasonic/Arctic 450.
Here you are able to see the how the various rails hold up when compared to various power supplies.
As for temperatures, I was amazed at how well this unique design was able to keep the interior of the case cool. Through all of my testing the interior of the case was never more than 2C warmer than the CPU, Which puts it around 39C (37C for the CPU). My previous case, the Raidmax Scorpio the interior of the case would be approximately 5C - 6C warmer than the CPU.
Conclusion:
The Silentium T2 has a suggested price of $129.00 (US), and it can be found at Newegg for $128.99 and at Xoxide for $129.99. A search of PriceGrabber (and elsewhere on the web) didn't turn up anything else, so availability is presently an issue. Given the unique design, attention to detail, and inclusion of a decent power supply, the price is not out of line. For a slightly different style on the same theme, Arctic Cooling also has a Silentium T1 in the same price range.
People looking for a high performance, unique case will discover that Arctic Cooling has done it right with the Silentium T2. With a redesigned interior, totally tool-less installation and unique fans, this case performs remarkably well. The only downfall to the T2 is the custom power supply installation, but that is also one of the unique features that make this case so interesting. Overall I have to give the Arctic Cooling Silentium T2 Case 4 out of 5... "Recommended".
Final Rating (4 out of 5 stars): 
Pros:
• Unique design
• Good cooling performance
• Quiet, high performace power supply
Cons:
• Custom installed power supply
• Very tight quarters
Special thanks to Scythe USA for providing the Arctic Cooling Silentium T2 case to BigBruin.Com for review.
Please drop by the BigBruin.Com forum and feel free to discuss this review.
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