SilentiumPC Navis F240 AIO Liquid Cooler Review

Installation

The SilentiumPC Navis F240 is a bit of a curious creature as it pretty much comes ready for all sockets without the need for different backing plates or any modification to the water block. – With the fans pre-installed to the radiator as well, all you pretty much have to do is get your mounting sorted. That’s it!

So, in this regard, getting things off to an excellent start, the product manual is crammed full of useful information and diagrams. Admitted though, for certain aspects, some close attention will be required!

To make things even better though, SilentiumPC actually has installations for both the AMD and Intel methodologies. – A great manual and some actual videos showing you how to do it? 10/10!

Mounting

In terms of the Intel mounting system (because the AMD one utilises the existing mounting brackets as often is the case), I have to admit that the methodology used with the SilentiumPC Navis F240 is not one I’m particularly fond of. – To start with, given that this is provided with just one backing plate, for certain socket types (such as our 155X) it has to be fitted at a slight angle. And trust me when I say that attempting to line up the holes was not an easy task and especially so when you don’t have a general ‘square’ to line things up against.

Even then, you have these 4 screws which attach directly to it which is a design I’ve always hated. Why? Well, when it comes to screwing the CPU block down, you often tend to slightly overtighten these mounts. This means that when it comes to removing the CPU block, you often take some of these out as well! – Put simply, better mounting systems are out there, but I don’t really know why some manufacturers choose to stick with these that, while ok, could be hugely better!

Some Concerns

When it came to the installation aspect of this review, I did note a number of factors that have led me to question certain aspects of the overall product quality. – One such instance is on the contact plate which, despite being new and coming with the protective covering in tact, it still had a number of very slight scratches and marks on the copper surface.

Another minor point is seen with the radiator. Now no, dents to the fins are not unusual. They’re thin and very susceptible to ‘dinging’ even with the most seemingly minor bit of accidental contact. Given that the fans are pre-installed on the radiator on this model, however, had I not removed them for the purpose of this review, I wouldn’t have noticed that one small aspect of the radiator had already received some exceptionally light damage.

A major point? No. You wouldn’t even see this when installed. It does, however, suggest that there could potentially be a shortfall in either the packaging process, manufacturing, or just overall quality assurance. I’m just being honest, but if I bought this new, I wouldn’t be too happy to find this (and this is coming from someone who knows just how easy this can happen!).

Finally, I also feel it worth noting that the length of the hose (connecting the radiator to the CPU block) isn’t very long. Coming at 390mm, this is slightly smaller than the average of around 400mm and while we’re clearly not talking about huge margins here, I honestly could tell that this was shorter simply by the fact that it was a bit more awkward to fit onto our test bench.

Admittedly, within a case, a more compact hose is nearly always going to probably be preferable. For those of you with pretty big chunky cases though, that missing 10mm could make things a lot trickier and tighter than they have to be! Particularly so given that the protective braiding on this is exceptionally high-quality meaning that, by proxy, it’s not very flexible at all!

Overall Thoughts

Despite some concerns, I’ve certainly encountered more problematic installations than what I’ve seen here. In many respects though, it almost feels like SilentiumPC, in something of what I believe is an entirely honest legitimate attempt to keep things as simple as possible, may have ‘overly’ optimised certain aspects.

It just feels like they attempted to make absolutely everything easier, and by the usual proxy of how these things go, it ended up making the entire process just slightly more awkward. – Let’s just hope that with this fitted, the slightly awkward installation methodology will be mollified with some impressive levels of cooling performance!