Arctic Cooling Super Silent 4

This is a fairly straightforward unit. It has an all aluminum construction with a plastic fan shroud and fan. It comes fully assembled in a nice blue box, and includes a small syringe of standard thermal paste. It uses a standard 3 pin plug which connects to the motherboard fan header. The only installation directions are printed on the box, and cover the basics. The fan, which draws air through the unit, sits atop a 10 mm shroud which serves to reduce any turbulence coming from the fan and increases the airflow through the unit. The fan screws directly into the shroud. There is a another configuration of this unit available, the SS4 TC, which features a temperature controlled fan with variable rpm from 800 to 2500.

The unit uses a slightly different configuration for attaching to the motherboard fan shroud that the stock Intel unit. This unit has metal clips which hook into the slots, as opposed to plastic clips. The way that the cam levers tighten is slightly different than the Intel unit because you have two cam levers instead of one. Once engaged, the mechanism feels quite solid.

Most Socket 478 heasinks must fit into the standard shroud so there were no clearance issues. I did have some difficult hooking the metal clips into the shroud, but that was due partly a crossmember in my case frame making access difficult and to my not having my best reading glasses on. I can generally install these by feel, but the metal clips on this heatsing were a little more difficult to align. Once hooked to the shroud, you simply raise the locking levers and you have a very secure fit. This is a relatively light heatsink at 398 grams, so you should be able to transport the system without any concerns.

The overall fit and finish of this product were very good, with no rough edges or any other evidence shortcuts in the manufacturing process. The bottom of the heatsink was not highly polished but the surface was quite smooth.