SilentiumPC Spartan 4 MAX EVO ARGB Cooler Review

A Closer Look

It should be noted that the SilentiumPC Spartan 4 MAX EVO ARGB (while being more than a bit of a mouthful) is neither marketed nor represents an expensive ‘high-end’ cooler design. It is effectively a cost-effective introductory cooler featuring ARGB compatible lighting effects. With that in mind though, despite its low price, does this look like a cheap cooler? Well, the short answer is no, but let’s take a look at some of the individual components that make up the design.

Contact Plate

Unlike the standard Spartan 4 cooler (that has two), the Spartan 4 MAX EVO ARGB provides you with 3 copper heat pipes leading away from the contact plate. Simply by proxy of volume, this should automatically suggest that the cooler performance of this ‘higher-spec’ model should be better.

In terms of the contact plate itself, while it is a little disappointing to see the copper contrasting against the surface, the area itself is perfectly sized to accommodate all standard AMD or Intel processors.

Radiator

The radiator certainly carries more than a few features that make it aesthetically distinctive when compared to other (and far more boring) alternatives.

With a contrast of black (to the top), the silver to the radiator fins, and the copper highlights given by the heat pipes, it all comes together to provide a design that is more than a little attractive in something of an understated manner.

With SilentiumPC branding very subtly located to the top and bottom of the radiator, for us, it strikes a perfect balance of making usually one of the most mundane aspects of air coolers visually attractive while not taking it too far to make it gaudy.

Fan

The fan itself looks fairly standard, albeit SilentiumPC has made some very smart decisions with it in order to get the best out of the ARGB lighting. For example, with its semi-transparent white appearance, this should allow the RGB lighting effects to really pop out to their full potential.

A closer look at the fan reveals this to (apparently) be a SilentiumPC own design. Specifically, the Pulsar ARGB 120mm which is PWM design meaning that, all going well, this should be able to alter its speed in a curved profile depending on the demands/heat of the CPU. Good acoustic performance is, therefore, at least potentially available here!

A mildly interesting factor, that perhaps best highlights how small this cooler is, is when you look at it with the fan installed to the radiator. As you can see in the image below, the fan is significantly larger and while this shouldn’t have any negative effects on the cooling performance or RAM compatibility, it does (deliberately or not) actually add to the overall aesthetic when the ARGB lighting is turned on. Simply by proxy of hiding some of the radiator in favor of the RGB effects.

ARGB Lighting

The ARGB lighting to the SilentiumPC Spartan 4 MAX EVO ARGB is surprisingly subtle and while certainly bright enough for the vast majority of consumers, I think I actually rather like the semi-muted tones it has.

While we can, of course, attempt to describe it, it’s always much easier just to show you. So if you want an idea as to how the ARGB lighting both looks and operates in a real-world setting, check out the video below.

Overall

The SilentiumPC Spartan 4 MAX EVO ARGB certainly presents itself as an excellent and inexpensive cooling solution. There is nothing within the design to suggest that any corners were cut to fit the budget and, on the whole, it looks like it should be pretty decent in our testing.

Before we get to the testing, however, we do need to actually install this onto our test bench. So, does the installation process hide any gremlins in this design? Well, there’s only one way to find out!