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Silverstone Nitrogon CPU Cooler Review

Posted by other_guy | Published in Cooling | [-no comments-]

SilverStone Technology has a wide array of products. Founded in 2003, they have designed many products, but are best known for the cases they produce. In the lineup of products. Is a cooling product called the Nitrogon SST-NT06-Lite. this is a lightened version of the NT06, which has a fan and controller.

An easy to use mounting system that supports AMD 754/939/940/AM2 and Intel 478/LGA775. Makes it a snap to get this cooler in and cooling your stock or overclocked CPU furnace. For even greater flexibility, the NT06-Lite allows you to use your favorite120MM fan or creative airflow solution. This is a massive cooling device that should please any geek, who demands top notch cooling, design and flexibility.

Specifications

	Model	SST-NT06-Lite
	Enclosure material	Copper base w/ bonded aluminum lower fins Copper heat pipes w/ soldered copper upper fins
	Color	Black fan shroud, zinc coated cooler
	Application	Intel Socket 478, LGA775, AMD Socket 754, 939, 940, AM2
	Heat Pipe Type	8mm thick powder heat pipe
	Net Weight	570 g
	Dimension	125.4mm (W) x 78mm (H) x 148mm (D)

Packaging and contents

Closer look at the cooler itself.

The base appears to be flat and of good quality.

For this review, the platform testbed used:

Intel LGA775 E2200
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L
G Skill PC6400 DDR2
(passively cooled) NV 7300GS

I was quite impressed how easy the mounting system is to use. SilverStone did a great job keeping to KISS (Keep it simple stupid). Any novice should find using the mounting system a breeze.

Here is the cooler mounted on the testbed.

Cooling results

All results were compiled using the latest version of CoreTemp and a digital thermometer. Load conditions were done using the latest build of Orthos.

Compared to the stock Intel cooler. Stock speeds and overclocked. The NT06 faired rather well. It gave a lowered range of about 10 degrees Celsius across the board. In some cases more.

The NT06 was even ran in a passive state to test capacity and silence. Due to the dangers this presents and variables involved. I am not going to go much further. Though it did not pass 70 Celsius under stock load settings. If a user has a fan failure. This cooler might be able to run passive with great to excellent air flow inside the case.

Stock settings on the Intel cooler versus the NT06 paired with a medium speed Yates Loon fan.

What fun is being stock? Lets overclock the Intel E2200 to 3.0Ghz and add a little voltage so it is stable. I needed to use 1.337 volts to the cores. Stock is normally 1.325 volts. Additional voltage makes for a lot more heat. This is a true test of the cooling performance of any cooling device. the stock E2200 simply cannot keep up here .I hit a thermal wall at 75 Celsius. the SilverStone simply blew stock cooling out of the water.

Conclusions

SilverStone has a great cooler here. It has many points going for it. It covers most modern sockets and situations. Good hardware package in case there is issues with a motherboard or clearance issues. Easy to mount and install the cooler. Not shipping the NT06 with a fan and Rheobus makes for great flexibility. I used a few differing fans and options. It performed very well, under everything tossed at it.

Pros