SilverStone Argon AR06 Low Profile CPU Cooler Review

[FrgMstr]

SilverStone Argon AR06 Low Profile CPU Cooler Review - Many enthusiasts are opting for smaller footprint cases now days, and SilverStone comes to us with its higher performance low profile cooler that measures in at just 52mm tall. It has double the heatpipes of the last SilverStone cooler we reviewed and services a host of CPU sockets for both AMD and Intel.

 

[Trimlock]

I like this, I'd like it a lot better if they would still include a 1366 bracket

I imagine if the fan and fins were pointed away from the cpu this would cool much better I can't complain about its performance when looking at the over all profile, price and performance.

This would be good for some server's even.

 

[AceGoober]

For a PC short on space and the owner of said PC not wanting to go to liquid cooling, the Argon AR06 is a great value. Thanks for the review!

 

[Armenius]

This looks like a good alternative to all the massive tower air coolers out there. It also looks like exactly what I was looking for. Only problem I have with it is the fan is so far off the rest of my PC's color scheme...

Saw that be quiet! also makes a low-profile heatpipe cooler that just came out. In reviews for it on other sites it seems to perform a little better than this, and the color won't clash with my components. Going to be looking into this one.

Here is the Legit Reviews review. Looks to be about on-par with the Cooler Master 612 v2, a tower cooler.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487130

 

[housecat]

Necro'ing this thread as I just read the review, but I wish they'd offer this for AM4. Doing my research on the best way to cool a CPU in a 58mm height case like the Node202, this was the best I've found that's still on the market today.

 

[Neapolitan6th]

Necro'ing this thread as I just read the review, but I wish they'd offer this for AM4. Doing my research on the best way to cool a CPU in a 58mm height case like the Node202, this was the best I've found that's still on the market today.

My thoughts would be to consider adding a higher rpm full size 25mm wide fan to the largest heatsink that will fit with it. (Worth consideration at least.. May not be the best option)

Noise could be a problem.

 

[doyll]

Impressive little cooler. I wonder what temps would be if fan was pulling air up and away from motherboard instead of down to motherboard .. where airflow turns out hitting RAM, GPU PCB, etc causing it to turn up along side of cooler where some of it gets drawn back into cooler. I found other small low profile coolers like this gave up to 10c lower temps, usually 7-8c lower temps with fan pulling air away from motherboard instead of pushing air toward motherboard.

 

[housecat]

Impressive little cooler. I wonder what temps would be if fan was pulling air up and away from motherboard instead of down to motherboard .. where airflow turns out hitting RAM, GPU PCB, etc causing it to turn up along side of cooler where some of it gets drawn back into cooler. I found other small low profile coolers like this gave up to 10c lower temps, usually 7-8c lower temps with fan pulling air away from motherboard instead of pushing air toward motherboard.

That's interesting. I would've guessed you'd want positive air pressure rather than negative. I was always dubious about pulling air out like that, seems like more dust could build up that way, and you also lose direct airflow being pushed not only onto the fins of the heatsink, but the bit that hits the base of it.
I have a feeling this would be very circumstantial. The default way I'd go is down unless this was tested on an individual setup.

My thoughts would be to consider adding a higher rpm full size 25mm wide fan to the largest heatsink that will fit with it. (Worth consideration at least.. May not be the best option)
Noise could be a problem.

That's what I have right now, Cryorig C7 with Noctua NF-B9. Largest heatsink that goes into my case that will still use a 25mm fan. It works pretty well. The only thing I'd rather have, probably, is the AR06 with a 15mm Noctua on top. I always wondered what would be better, slightly better heatsink, or a 25mm fan. Doesn't matter because I don't have that option today.

 

[doyll]

That's interesting. I would've guessed you'd want positive air pressure rather than negative. I was always dubious about pulling air out like that, seems like more dust could build up that way, and you also lose direct airflow being pushed not only onto the fins of the heatsink, but the bit that hits the base of it.
I have a feeling this would be very circumstantial. The default way I'd go is down unless this was tested on an individual setup.

Positive pressure / negative pressure is the means of creating air movement by higher pressure area of air moving into lower pressure lower pressure area. The extremely low difference between positive pressure and negative pressure create by computer fans is less than the difference between air pressure at sea level an 10 feet above sea level.

The difference is when cooler fan on pancake cooler is pulling airaway from motherboard the airflow supplying bottom side of cooler is flowing in over RAM, motherboard etc. instead of from above cooler where the heated air in is pushing out isn't turning back up along side of cooler and being drawn back into it.

I've tested many pancake coolers including C7, PH-TC90LS, AXP-100, PH-TC12LS, C1, PH-TC14CS, AXP-200, Shadow Rock LP, and others I can't remember of the top of my head. Some of these have fan between cooler fin pack and motherboard so with airflow away from motherboard they fan is pushing air instead of pulling. The taller they are the better they do with airflow movng toward motherboard vs away from motherboard. All of these were first tested on open bench test station. Many were also used in case applications to verify the lower CPU temp when moving air though them away from motherboard vs airflow toward motherboard. Unless there was an intake vent with intake fan directly above the cooler so cool air was being pushed by case intake fan into cooler fan, cooler to motherboard I get lower CPU temps with fan moving air away from motherboard.

Another little bit of trivia about case airflow is removing all PCIe slot covers from back of case almost always improve GPU and CPU temps. Reason is more exhaust vent area in back of case, especially around GPU so better front to back airflow moving heated GPU air that is dumping in all directions out of GPU back and out of case so less of it mixed with cool intake air from front and maybe bottom intakes warming it .. and again every degree warmer the air is going into cooler results in basically a degree hotter component will be.

 

[housecat]

Positive pressure / negative pressure is the means of creating air movement by higher pressure area of air moving into lower pressure lower pressure area. The extremely low difference between positive pressure and negative pressure create by computer fans is less than the difference between air pressure at sea level an 10 feet above sea level.

The difference is when cooler fan on pancake cooler is pulling airaway from motherboard the airflow supplying bottom side of cooler is flowing in over RAM, motherboard etc. instead of from above cooler where the heated air in is pushing out isn't turning back up along side of cooler and being drawn back into it.

I've tested many pancake coolers including C7, PH-TC90LS, AXP-100, PH-TC12LS, C1, PH-TC14CS, AXP-200, Shadow Rock LP, and others I can't remember of the top of my head. Some of these have fan between cooler fin pack and motherboard so with airflow away from motherboard they fan is pushing air instead of pulling. The taller they are the better they do with airflow movng toward motherboard vs away from motherboard. All of these were first tested on open bench test station. Many were also used in case applications to verify the lower CPU temp when moving air though them away from motherboard vs airflow toward motherboard. Unless there was an intake vent with intake fan directly above the cooler so cool air was being pushed by case intake fan into cooler fan, cooler to motherboard I get lower CPU temps with fan moving air away from motherboard.

Another little bit of trivia about case airflow is removing all PCIe slot covers from back of case almost always improve GPU and CPU temps. Reason is more exhaust vent area in back of case, especially around GPU so better front to back airflow moving heated GPU air that is dumping in all directions out of GPU back and out of case so less of it mixed with cool intake air from front and maybe bottom intakes warming it .. and again every degree warmer the air is going into cooler results in basically a degree hotter component will be.

That's really interesting, thanks. Makes sense. The only thing I wondered about airflow away from a heatsink is the assumption that it actually pulls air successfully over all the length of the fins. Rather than just air over the top portion. I would think it'd be dependent on how tall of a heatsink you're pulling over. While the positive pressure / down arrangement would ensure you're getting fresh air over all the length of the fins, down to the base of the heatsink. I would want to test this in a wind tunnel of some sort to measure where current is moving over each portion. Overall though, what you said makes sense too in that there's just not enough pressure to make a massive difference either way.

This is my machine, do you have any suggestions to improve the cooling? https://pcpartpicker.com/b/dFmqqs
My motherboard is busted, so I need to put in a new one and get a new CPU while I'm at it, and I'd like to put in a 2700X. It should run pretty hot, as I had an 1800X in my system before and it was. But I may move to a new case that supports taller coolers than 58mm. Silverstone RVZ03 with Raijintek Pallas + Noctua 140x25mm fan on it.

 

[doyll]

That's really interesting, thanks. Makes sense. The only thing I wondered about airflow away from a heatsink is the assumption that it actually pulls air successfully over all the length of the fins. Rather than just air over the top portion. I would think it'd be dependent on how tall of a heatsink you're pulling over. While the positive pressure / down arrangement would ensure you're getting fresh air over all the length of the fins, down to the base of the heatsink. I would want to test this in a wind tunnel of some sort to measure where current is moving over each portion. Overall though, what you said makes sense too in that there's just not enough pressure to make a massive difference either way.

This is my machine, do you have any suggestions to improve the cooling? https://pcpartpicker.com/b/dFmqqs
My motherboard is busted, so I need to put in a new one and get a new CPU while I'm at it, and I'd like to put in a 2700X. It should run pretty hot, as I had an 1800X in my system before and it was. But I may move to a new case that supports taller coolers than 58mm. Silverstone RVZ03 with Raijintek Pallas + Noctua 140x25mm fan on it.

While downflow may spread air more evenly over area of fins if that air has already been through cooler and warmed up it's worse then less evenly spread cool air. This means heated air coming out of cooler onto motherboard has to turn and flow up around the cooler and fan where it gets sucked back into cooler.

GPU coolers have similar problem pushing air throug fins against GPU PCB where it flow up, down and out both ends. Down it hits motjherboard, forward it splits up toward CPU cooler and down it's back to GPU cooler fans. Air comitng out up goes toward CPU cooler toward GPU fans, or back if case has good front & bottom intake fans pushing cool air toward GPU and on back toward rear of case. Which is why unless it's a reference cooler with blower cooling system I remove all PCIe back slot covers for more rear vent area around GPU so case can have front to back airflow around GPU. This also helps by moving GPU's heated air back instead of up around CPU cooler.

I helped a guy build a nice gaming rig in older model of RVZ03 style case. We had to use thin intake fans on side to GPU and CPU cooler fan was up against vent on other side of case. Took us almost 2 months of trial & error testing with different fans and combinations to get it running cool and quiet, but we did get it to work quite nicely. Used AXP-100 CPU cooler, 13mm thick TY-100 intake fans on GPU side, didn't use I/O shield on back to get as much vent area as possible .. I wouldn't advice it now. Had to change fans a couple of times because of being so close to things we had b vibration / harmonic noise problems New CPU and GPU are higher TDP, so even more heat and we were pusing the limits too hard already.