The CPU cooler is probably one of the
most important parts of your system, and a lot of people just deal
with the stock cooler. A cool CPU is a happy CPU, but most decent
coolers are large and they just won’t fit in all cases, especially if
you want to use a microATX case or maybe an HTPC case. A small cooler
is what you need, and the one I have today might be perfect for a
situation where a small but good performing CPU cooler is needed.
It’s from Silenx and it’s called the Effizio EFZ-80HA2 Compact CPU
Cooler. So read on to learn more about it and see how it performs…

Product
Name: Silenx
Effizio EFZ-80HA2 Compact CPU Cooler

Author: Kristofer Brozio

Sponsor: Silenx

Tech
Specs,Features or the Basic Info:

EFZ-80HA2
– Compact Universal Heatsink

For those who need a good
performance heatsink in a smaller form factor, don’t miss out on the
Effizio EFZ-80HA2! It fits in cases that simply cannot accommodate a
large 120mm based heatsink, but doesn’t sacrifice the performance you
need to run your rig. Performs better than your stock cooler while
operating at a lower noise, it’s a perfect complement to your new
system and ideal for those with moderate processing needs. If you’re
not running a highly overclocked gaming system, there’s no need to
spend much on a giant heatsink that will yield no benefits to you.
The EFZ-80HA2 utilizes three 6mm heatpipes that directly contact the
CPU and are intertwined to provide six effective heatpipes worth of
thermal dissipation. A universal mounting bracket supports the widest
range of current AMD and Intel sockets, including the latest
multicore Phenom and i3/i5/i7 processors. An included fan speed
controller allows you to quiet down the fan to just the right balance
of noise and performance for the most discerning user.

Comes with a 80mm fan with
fluid dynamic bearings for years of reliable performance and no need
to purchase a fan, though you have the option of adding a second fan
for more performance, hardware for second fan installation is
included. The installation process is easy with a typical install
time of under 10 minutes and it does not require the use of any other
tools other than a scredriver to remove and/or secure the
motherboard. Each Effizio heatsink comes with a three year warranty
from the date of purchase and as always, you can be sure of getting
the service should you need it.

specifications:

sku: EFZ-80HA2

rated: dba: 8-24

dimensions: 67x86x113mm

base material: Copper
Heatpipes, Aluminum Plates

fin material: Aluminum Fins

weight: 296g

rpm: 1200-2400

cfm: 12-36

current draw: <0.20A

power consumption: <2.40w

bearings: FDB, fluid dynamic
bearings

cpu compatibility: Socket
LGA775, LGA1156, LGA1366, 754, 939, 940, AM2, AM2+, AM3

A
Better Look at Things:

The Silenx Effizio EFZ-80HA2
Compact CPU Cooler comes in a nice small box.

Inside the box you’ll find two
small bags each labeled for AMD or Intel CPU installations. There’s
also a fan controller unit and a back plate that is used for all of
the sockets.

The cooler comes with the fan
pre-installed. The cooler is made of aluminum mainly with copper heat
pipes in it. Her’s several views of the cooler:

The top has the Silenz logo on it,
and you can see where the heatpipes end. The aluminum fins, as you
can see, alternate in size.

On the bottom, right beneath the
fins is another smaller heatsink that sits right on the block.

Here’s the base and a close up. It
seems flat, but it does have small grooves in it and it’s semi
reflective.

Installation,
Testing and Comparison:

I’m
installing this on my Corei5 750 CPU inside of a Cooler
Master Sniper Case.

Before
this I was using the Noctua
NH-U12P in my system, so that’s what I’m comparing the EFZ-80HA2 to.

Now the Noctua is huge when
compared to the EFZ-80HA2, here’s a couple pictures to show you:

The first thing you’ll do is build
the back plate with four nuts, four screws and four washers. Simple
to do.

Installation then can be annoying.
The back plate is rather large and the Cooler Master Sniper does have
the motherboard cut out to make CPU installation easy. Problem is
either the back plate is too big or the hole is too small. Now I’ve
had this problem with other CPU coolers and I bent the motherboard
tray just a little bit and everything was fine, with this back plate
though I really had to bend and cut the motherboard tray even more.
Of course I could have easily installed it the old fashioned way by
taking everything out of the case, but who wants to do that,
especially when most of the new cases today come with their
motherboard cut out. So that was the first little problem.

The next difficulty was getting it
attached to the CPU itself, the problem was the angle and holding the
back plate in place, while holing the cooler, then getting the washer
over the long screw then attaching the spring loaded thumbscrew that
holds the cooler in place. Fun times all around… After dropping the
washers and screws several times and cursing many more times I got it
installed securely in place. Again my life would have been easier had
I just removed everything from the case and installed it to the
motherboard when it was out of the case.

So here it is installed:

So next up would be testing. I
used two instances of Orthos Stress Prime to get load on the CPU.
Ambient room temperature during testing was 25.2C (+/- .3C). I used
CoreTemp to record the temperatures and then averaged them out to get
a single temp for the following chart.

The Silenx cooler comes with a fan
controller and for testing I set it to low and to high to see the
differences. I found that both on high and low the cooler was very
quiet. On low it was silent, then high it was just barely audible, I
would still call it virtually silent.

The max temp for the Corei5 750 is
about 72C, and the max I hit with this cooler was only 60.5C when the
fan was on high. That’s not bad really for such a small cooler,
especially when the Noctua is so much bigger. Under load the the
Silenx is only about 9C higher than the Noctua. You have to remember
though this test puts the CPU under full 100% load, all four cores,
and that’s something the average user would never be doing most
likely. So I think the cooler isn’t too bad overall truly.

Summary
and Comments:

I’ll be honest here, I’m impressed
with the performance of the Silenx Effizio EFZ-80HA2 Compact CPU
Cooler. This thing is very small, especially when considering the
Noctua cooler I compared it to, and it performs admirably well in
comparison.

The EFZ-80HA2 CPU Cooler is well
made and it’s fairly easy to install, that is if you install it the
normal way by removing the motherboard from the case. If you have a
case that has the motherboard cut out for installing CPUs you might
have an issue with the back plate being too big to fit in the hole.

DragonSteelMods gives the Silenx
Effizio EFZ-80HA2 Compact CPU Cooler a 4.5 out of 5 score.

Pros:

+Small and compact

+Quiet even on high

+Decent performance for its size

+Nicely made

Cons:

-Large back plate

-Installation can be tricky

review# 673

Disclosure: This product was given to DragonSteelMods for review by the company
for review purposes only, and is not considered by us as payment for
the review, we do not, never have, and never will, accept payment
from companies to review their products.

To
learn more about our review policy, testing methods and ratings
please see this page.