It’s hard to stand out when there are so many companies battling in each segment of the PC hardware sector for a slice of the market. But SilentiumPC has found a straight to point approach and they are doing it so well, it’s impossible to ignore what they have achieved.
Meet their new Fera 5 single tower asymmetrical 120mm CPU cooler that promises mental value in both areas – cooling and noise output. It’s rated up to 220W of TDP and this new range is backed by a 6 years long warranty.
SilentiumPC was established in 2007, Warsaw, Poland. They build high-quality silent PC cases, power supplies and cooling solutions that simply get the job done without breaking the bank. They accomplish this by the old-school belief that good products are the key to success. No aggressive marketing, no flashy banners everywhere, no mighty slogans. Instead they’re putting efforts in effective design and smart cost-cutting so the customers get the pure essence of functionality at unbeatable prices.
Prices and Availability
With an MSRP of just £24.95 depending on vendors this Fera 5 promises insane value for money. Then for just £5 extra you can have the dual fan option which again is an excellent package deal. They also recently announced the ARGB variant of the Fera 5 for those who want the extra bling.
*26/10/21 – Don’t forget the video review as well with extra sound samples*
Presentation and Specifications
*Courtesy of their website.*
Fera 5 is a new SilentiumPC CPU cooler implementing Synergy Cooling technology. It’s an all-new, asymmetrical heatsink with densely packed fins, optimized heatsink base and four direct-touch heatpipes, combined with new Fluctus 120 PWM fan with improved bearing and excellent acoustics. In addition to single fan Fera 5, a twin fan Fera 5 Dual Fan model with 2× Fluctus 120 PWM fans is available. Fera 5 series coolers are covered by 6-year manufacturer warranty.
High performance, long life Fluctus 120 PWM fan – Fluctus 120 PWM works best on dense heatsinks and water cooling radiators, where airflow is restricted. Uniquely profiled fan blades create high static pressure. New high endurance bearing ensures smooth, low noise operation with 100 000 h MTBF.
Excellent acoustics – Serrated leading edges of fan blades contribute to noise reduction. This reduces prominent tonal noises and is at heart of our patent-pending psychoacoustic optimization.
Asymmetrical heatsink – Heatsink fins are asymmetrical and specially profiled for maximum performance and minimum noise. Install with the indicated airflow direction for best results.
Direct touch heatpipes – The compact heatsink base provides the best contact with the surface of modern CPUs. Four heatpipes are in direct contact with the CPU to improve heat transfer.
Easy mounting system – New, universal mounting system improves contact pressure between heatsink base and the processor. It has fewer parts and is easier to install in any position. Included pictorial manual and video guides explain the installation step-by-step.
Visual Inspection
The Fera 5 comes in a minimalist yet highly effective packaging with an actual visual depiction of the CPU cooler.
On the back we have a quick list regarding the main features of the Fera 5.
This side covers the full specs for the heatsink and the included 120mm Fluctus fan.
Protection is insured via some Styrofoam pad at the bottom while the heatsink is protected from side to side via the accessory and fan boxes.
Even those boxes carry the SilentiumPC logo and a description of what’s inside.
Regarding the accessories, here’s a detailed view.
1x Intel 1200 & 11xx backplate
1x Branded thermal paste mini-syringe
1x Instruction manual
1x Universal securing metal plate
4x Securing bolts
4x Fan metal wire clips
4x AMD double threaded sleeved bolts
4x Intel plastic locking sleeves
4x Intel double threaded bolts
4x Intel locking backplate flat screws
Then the instruction manual is really easy to follow through, with a lot of visual ques.
Now let’s inspect their new Fluctus 120mm PWM fan. It’s rated up to 1800 RPM with the stop-fan and optional semi-passive mode abilities, on compatible motherboards.
The fan takes power via its 4-pin un-sleeved 200mm long cable with a built-in PWM 4-pin splitter for a second fan, which is 130mm long.
With the help of its serrated and aggressive looking 9-blade design, it should push a decent amount of air albeit we have no official specs numbers here.
It’s built on fluid dynamic bearings and thus it’s rated up to 100,000 hour of continuous operation, which is highly impressive at this price bracket. No wonder it carries a 6 years warranty.
Each corner on both sides has anti-vibration pads installed which can also be removed, if you desire.
Now onto the heatsink. It’s an asymmetrical single tower with a direct contact base. Given its slim design this should be a zero interference CPU cooler all around the socket area.
It has the fins made from aluminium that reside on the 4 copper heatpipes, that join to form the direct touch baseplate.
There is even a small heatsink on top of the heatpipes and the locking plate is preinstalled.
There is a practical design detail in the form of a complete recess in the fins in order for the fan to fully slot in and not move sideways.
This marking shows you the correct way to orientate the heatsink.
Then the top plastic plate covers the exiting heatpies. Even with this plate present, the Fera 5 is only 155mm tall so it will fit most smaller 160mm capable cases.
Back to the contact side which has a non-mirror finish with very fine residual grooves from the machining process.
This is how it will look with the fan on, which, given the fan’s unique design, should be easy to recognize that this is the Fera 5.
Installation
Installation should be a breeze since the supplied hardware is minimal and well thought over, especially on the AMD socket since it has even less parts than the Intel one. Thus the first step is to retain the motherboard backplate after you remove the front socket plastic brackets.
Attach the double threaded sleeved screws into the backplate.
Next up is the universal metal plate which just make sure to face it the right way up.
Bolt the plate down in each corner.
Apply the thermal paste and then bolt down the Fera 5 heatsink.
As expected, there are no clearance issues whatsoever in each direction around the socket area, including the RAM.
Attach the fan and we are ready for the next chapter.
Testing methodology
- The AMD Ryzen 7 1700 CPU will be tested at stock settings and then overclocked at 3.70 GHz for 1.325v
- As the main torture test, we will employ a 2 minute run in AIDA64
- Room temperature was recorded at ~18°C
- For the noise testing, we used our Pyle PSPL01 placed 30 cm away from the setup – all other fans will will be off or set at minimum RPM
- Thermal paste used – Noctua NH-H2
- We will compare the results to other CPU air coolers close to its price/performance bracket plus other items for an even broader perspective
- All CPU fans will be left on the ‘standard’ auto % rpm curve to simulate real life usage patterns and the side panel is attached while the case fans are set at a fixed 30% RPM
- Any results over 90°C in any condition are considered a fail
Competition CPU Coolers:
– Noctua NH-U12A – Dual 120 mm
– Noctua NH-U12S Redux – 120 mm
– SilverStone Hydrogon D120 ARGB – Dual 120 mm
– be quiet! Shadow Rock Slim 2 – 135 mm
– Noctua NH-P1 – Passive
– Noctua NH-D9L – 92 mm
– AMD Wraith Spire RGB – 92 mm
Hardware used:
– CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 1700 AM4
– RAM 16GB DDR4 T-Force Night Hawk RGB 3000 MHz CL16
– Motherboard: ASUS ROG STRIX X370-F Gaming ATX @ BIOS 5220
– Boot SSD: ADATA XPG SX6000 TLC M.2 NVMe 1.3 Gen3 x4
– Video card(s): KF2 GTX 480 Anarchy Accelero Xtreme Plus
– PSU: Corsair CV550 ATX Bronze
– Case: Silverstone FARA R1 PRO
Software:
– OS: Windows 10 Pro x64 Build 21H1
– GPU Drivers: NVIDIA GeForce WHQL 391.35
– Core Temp v1.17 – To see the temperatures in real time
– CPU-Z v1.95 – To verify the CPU’s statistics
– AIDA64 Extreme v6.23 – Another popular total system stability test
– Cinebench R15 – Popular CPU benchmark
– Cinebench R20 – The new revised version optimised for the newer multi-core CPUs
– MSI Afterburner v4.62 – To record the FPS and load/temperatures
Resolution for our test game Rise Of the Tomb Raider, is set at 1920×1080 with everything at Medium quality settings and no AA.
Testing, Results and Analysis
Let’s start in order of CPU load difficulty. First up is the Cinebench R15 test. On the left we have the CPU in stock form while on the right we have it overclocked.
We have an incredible battle here where the Fera 5 is virtually as good as the more expensive Noctua U12S Redux and the dual tower 120mm Hydrogon.
The Cinebench R20 is a more modern up to date multi core benchmark suite. So naturally we will see a bigger load and thus a larger temperature figure than the R15.
There is a bit of reshuffling in the ranks but the overall equilibrium is preserved.
In AIDA64 we isolated the stress test just for the CPU therefore we should get the highest stress scenario for the CPU but sometimes the R20 proves to be just as stressful (or higher) and thus the general hierarchy is preserved once more.
Rise Of the Tomb Raider is a fantastic game and also a good testing title for both GPUs and CPUs. Still not as stressful as a synthetic torture test but a great indicator of real life usage.
The noise output is where the other big surprise comes from, because it’s so quiet even in full load!
Conclusion
The SilentiumPC Fera 5 is a clear example of a scenario where a budget item doesn’t necessary mean low performance or low quality. On the contrary, it gives it the advantage to focus clearly on the results without any unnecessary details. Thus, the Fera 5 excels exactly where an air cooler is supposed to: keeping your CPU cool and happy while doing it as close to a silent operation as possible. Being 155mm tall this means you can install this in the medium format ATX cases and the fact that it comes out of the box ready to support an addition 120mm fan, if you desire to go above its 220W TDP cooling capability, makes the Fera 5 very hard to ignore!
The good:
+ Incredible cooling and acoustic results for its price bracket
+ High quality fluid dynamic bearing fan
+ Easy installation
+ Built-in PWM splitter on the fan
+ Ability to install a second fan
+ 6 years warranty
The bad:
– None
Glob3trotters “Editor’s Choice” Award – 5 out of 5
Many thanks to SilentiumPC for supplying us with this cooler !
