Introduction
After testing their heatpaste, we managed to get our mitts on a Zaward Sylphee which has a rather original design. Instead of one fan blowing across the fins, this packs two. That coupled with a fully aluminium chassis should make for interesting testing.
About Zaward
Zaward Corporation was founded in 1996 as the sole worldwide agent of Globefan Technology Co., Ltd., one of the leading manufacturers of DC fans that established since 1986 in Taiwan to provide major personal computer power supply companies with the best quality products.
For the efforts over the decade, the company has built her reliable reputation and gained clients’ trust on her high standard of engineering and well-developed quality control system.
As the company grew, it put together the thermal solution R&D team and started work on big OEM projects mainly from German and Japanese electrical companies. With full support from Globefan, the company has consistently met the strict demands of its customers.
While technology is progressing rapidly, reduction in costs are always called for. Due to market changes, the company has decided to promote their own products.
In year 2005, Zaward & Globefan setup the new R&D centre; thermal solution lab in Taipei, Taiwan for OEM customerized project and for its own product development.
At the same time, the new noise lab and wind tunnel have installed in China factory to fulfil our research and development for high technology, more advanced products. Meanwhile to have the complete test equipment for more strict quality control and application purpose.
Specs
Heatsink | ||
Application | Socket | Socket CPU ( Max.130W ) |
Intel
|
775
|
Core 2 Duo Allendale series |
Core 2 Duo Conroe series | ||
Core 2 Extreme Conroe XE series | ||
Celeron D series | ||
Pentium 4 Prescott series | ||
478
|
Celeron D series | |
Celeron series | ||
Pentium 4 Prescott series | ||
Pentium 4 Willamette series | ||
Pentium 4 Northwood series | ||
AMD
|
AM2
|
Sempron series |
Athlon 64 series | ||
Athlon 64 X2 series | ||
Athlon 64 FX-62 series | ||
754
|
Sempron series | |
Athlon 64 series | ||
939
|
Athlon 64 series | |
Athlon 64 X2 series | ||
940
|
Athlon 64 FX series | |
Opteron series | ||
Dimension | 100 x 80 x 126mm | |
Material | Copper Base & Aluminum Fin | |
Heatpipe | Copper ø6mm x 2pcs | |
Weight | 670g | |
Fan | ||
Fan Size | ø7.3 x 58.3mm | |
Fan Speed | 1500~3600 rpm±200rpm | |
Bearing Type | Dual Balls Bearing | |
Air Flow | 15.02~35.48 CFM | |
Noise Level | 18~35.0 dBA | |
Max. Rated Current | 0.60 Max. Amp at 12VDC | |
Max. Rated Voltage | 12V VDC | |
Max. Input Power | 7.20 Max. Watt at 12VDC | |
Life expectancy | 50,000 Hours at 25°C,15~65% R.H. |
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Dual embedded silent fans.
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2 pcs high performance heat pipes.
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Auto fan speed controlled by Thermistors.
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Extremely silent fans at 18dBA, intake air flow from both sides.
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Airflow blows to multi-direction and cools the whole computer system
Sylphee Service
Packaged in a cardboard windowed box, it’s easy to get inside, much unlike plastic clamshell boxes (which I have a major hate for). Both the front and the back of the boxes have a window which allows you to see the Sylphee itself. The sides tell you of its excessive compatibility with nearly every socket released (bar socket A), and the individual features.
Once out the box, you get a whole bunch of mounting brackets, screws, the manual and the Sylphee itself. Sprouting from either side of the Sylphee you’ll find the two fan 3 pin connectors sleeved in a rubbery white coating. For those of you wondering why it’s not a 4 pin setup the Sylphee has thermistors that regulate the fan speed for optimum cooling at the lowest noise.
If you find that you don’t have two 3 pin headers available on your board, then the included fan header splitter will be of obvious use. It seems a little odd that the fans aren’t connected inside the heatsink itself rather than having two ugly leads coming out the side. Also, the opportunity to use molex instead of a fan header would also be useful.
The two fans are separated with a clear plastic plate that stops the fans from cancelling each other out. Instead of blowing through the heatsink, these are radial fans that blow towards the centre of the heatsink. The plastic middle forces the air to radiate sideways, blowing parallel with the heatsink blades. The use of two fans, each with their own thermistor, seems a little excessive, but that’s what we’ve come to expect from CPU cooling.
Looks-wise, this isn’t the most streamlined heatsink, and looks like a washing machine rather than a performance heatsink. On the side of the heatsink, you’ll find a nice little logo compliments of Zaward. The two heatpipes that extend from the base to the top of the Sylphee are the only real hint that this will move some serious heat. The top of the heatsink has more clear plastic arranged with honeycombed holes allowing a small amount of airflow.
The position of the thermistors is a little strange. In their current position they measure the temperature of the air being sucked into the cooler, which will nearly always be the same as the case temperature. A better position would be inside the cooler, closer to the base of the unit where they can accurately measure the temperature of the core beneath.
Installation
You have the option of installing this heatsink on a large number of sockets, including AMD AM2, 754, 939, 940 and Intel LGA775 and 478. The only the only real mainstream socket that is missing is socket A, but I doubt anyone is still using one, or if they are, I doubt you will be looking for a new heatsink.
Already attached to the heatsink is the pop-in mounts for LGA775 which is the heatsinks main target. The use of pop-in mounts makes installation a breeze but some users prefer to have some hefty screws to mount their cooler. Personally, I have no problem with this mounting system as it makes my life easier during installation.
The bottom of the heatsink is flat, but far from shiny. There are obvious machine marks where the base has been finished. Hopefully this won’t adversely affect performance.
The mounting clips or pins are held on using 4 screws that have to be removed if you want to use a different socket. I’ll be using an AM2 socket to allow comparison will our other tested coolers.
To do so, the LGA775 brackets were removed and then the AM2 brackets installed. The AM2 bracket uses the original backing plate from the stock cooler which means that installation will be easy, providing you still have the backing plate. Four spring screws later and the cooler was installed.
Overall, installation was easy and quick to accomplish. The included manual goes a long way to make the process error-free and easy to do too.
Testing
To test the Sylphee, I’ll be using an AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ with Arctic Silver 5 between (300 hour curing time elapsed) sat in a Lian Li PCB-20 case. To test, I’ll use the following process:
Let the core idle for 30 minutes with nothing running, and record the end temperature.
Start both StressPrime on both cores and a single instance of folding@home.
Let the testing run for 30 minutes and record the end temperature.
Ambient was a constant 19C.
While in use, the Sylphee stayed well under the audible radar, and with the case closed this cooler can be classed as silent. Overall its performance is good for its noise level, although I would be reluctant to overclock with this cooler attached. Managing to cool near to the mark the ThermalTake Max Orb set at idle is no mean feat. It manages to beat the stock cooler hands down and produces a lot less noise in the process.
During testing, the Sylphee never reached its full speed of 3600RPM, but hit 2200RPM max. This goes to show that my earlier point regarding thermistor positioning is valid. Placing these temperature sensors nearer the core would provide more useful temperatures. It also shows that there is still some cooling headroom left in the Sylphee, allowing for more powerful CPU’s to be used at the cost of noise.
As the fans blow outwards from the heatsink, they also provide a small amount of airflow for the surrounding components. While no official testing was carried out, the four sticks of OCZ 512mb DDR2 RAM felt considerably cooler while using the Sylphee.
Conclusion
For the latest Intel offerings and AMD processors, this cooler is silent and cools well below any speed step-down thresholds. The cooling is sufficient for newer, cooler CPUs but might be a little underpowered for older Intel offerings (read: socket 478).
If you are looking for a silent cooler for your PC then the Zaward Sylphee is a wise choice.
Pros | Cons |
Great cooling at low noise level | Two fan leads |
Easy installation | Poorly placed thermistors |
Collateral cooling | Not powerful enough for overclocking |
I’d like to thank QuietPC for providing us with the cooler.
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