February 15th, 2011

Arctic Cooling Silentium T5

Installation

Test Rig

Processor	Intel Core i7-920 @ 2.66GHz
Motherboard	ASUS P6T SE
Memory	OCZ Platinum PC3-12800 7-7-7-24 @ 1333MHz, 1.65v
Graphics Card	Sapphire 512MB 4770
Hard Drive	Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB
Power Supply	OCZ ModXStream 600W
Enclosure	Cooler Master ATCS-840
OS	Windows Vista 64-bit

I must admit that the drives were very easy to install with the tool-less rails that were not prone to falling off as many are.

With the rails attaching the drives simply slot into place with the front bezel removed.

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Installing the main components seemed much more cramped than I was expecting due to not having to fit at a PSU at the top or bottom. The other side panel is irremovable and so cables cannot be routed behind the motherboard tray meaning that they all bulge out in a mess all over the motherboard with the only place to hide them in a spare drive bay.

The USB and Audio cables are much too long and although I can rout them along the bottom of the case using my MATX motherboard, with a full-ATX board it would be even more of a struggle to get everything in.

On a positive note, the PCI slot mechanism is very easy to use simply opening up to install a device and then clamping down on top to secure it.

Click to enlarge