Alphacool Laing DDC - Silentbox Review

Alphacool Laing DDC-Silentbox

by Dark Mantis

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Here we have the Alphacool Laing DDC-silent box, a specially designed housing for the Laing DDC pump from Alphacool although it would work with other makes of course. It was delivered well packaged with great care and presentation as always from the company. Once the item has been removed from the box I could see that it came neatly packaged, secured and protected within a bubble wrapped bag in its own well designed box. Also provided within a separate plastic bag are the eight mounting screws to secure the silent box into or onto the computer case. An easy adaptable device to install and easy to construct/deconstuct using four small pozidrive screws.

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Apart from being used to silence the cooling pump it also helps stop vibrations. Because of the fact that the pump is encapsulated in a foam and steel box it makes the mounting options more varied. There are the obvious ways like bolting to the base or side of the computer internally but it also allows for the option of mounting externally too which could be a very usefull change. It would mean that the pump, reservoir and radiator could all be housed outside of the case making the electronics less liable to damage by any leaks.

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The box is made of 1.00mm mild steel which has then been powder coated with black satin paint.The thickness in total is 1.32mm. On the inside of this is stuck a medium density open cell foam liner 10mm thick which is self adhesive. On the base and both sides are drilled many size M4 holes which are tapped ready to use as fixing points. This is good attention to detail as many companies would have just left them as pre drilled holes. It weighs in at 380gms without the pump and the overall dimensions are 102 x 102 x 67mm.

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The standard box has the ability to take the DDC pump with different head units. This is permitted by the use of various cut outs in the steel of the case and all that is necessary for the end user to do is cut out the foam to allow access of the barb or whatever other fitting is going to terminate on the pump. By doing things this way nearly 100% of the noise can be held inside of the box. There are also two cutouts for the cable to exit the box, one at the rear and one at the front. It is just a shame that it doesn't fit the D5 pumps and I think that Alphacool should market a similar device for them.

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There is no requirement to actually bolt the pump down inside the box as the surrounding foam holds it quite firmly once the case is closed and screwed together. This is an added bonus as it acts as a decoupler and means there is nothing at all that can let the vibrations travel to the outside.

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The Alphacool Silent Box is well named as it does exactly what it is supposed to do. It is sturdy and not wastefull of space being just larger than the pump it is designed to house. When everyone is very concious of the noise emmanating from their computer nowadays with the quieter components in general and especially if used in a HTPC this works well and is sensibly priced to at €16.95. It is worthy of the 9/10 awarded.

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Supplied by : Alphacool http://www.alphacool.com price: €16.95

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After being asked about the foam insulation I tested it and found that it is indeed fire retardant. So in a worst case scenario even if the pump caught fire if anything the chance of a fire would be less if it was encased in this box.

Does the box dissipate any heat? Would you say the pump runs hot in the box?

To be honest I didn't run it for that long but didn't notice much difference. Obviously because of the insulation it must hold a certain amount of heat in but I suppose because of the water going through it all the time it dissipates heat that way. I think that I should look into it further though in this respect and will do so as soon as I have time and will then report my findings.

Wow, thats probably a really bad idea right there. I wonder what Alphacool was thinking. Most of us are trying to cut slots, add heatsinks etc, to properly dissipate the heat that the pump puts out and Alphacool comes along with a way to dump more heat into your loop.

Of course you are right but I suppose it is a trade off as usual. If you have to run your pump at a high level which tends to make more noise then I guess that a soundproofed box seems more enticing. If only they had incorporated a freezer element inside....:D

Did you check the noise levels with some sort of instrument?

No I don't have any noise meter at my disposal. All I can say is that my pump is fairly quiet although it is far from new and has some wear resulting in a little noise/vibration when turned up. It isn't noisy but quite audible under normal conditions however once encased in the box it was totally silent as far as I could tell.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mav2000

Wow, thats probably a really bad idea right there. I wonder what Alphacool was thinking. Most of us are trying to cut slots, add heatsinks etc, to properly dissipate the heat that the pump puts out and Alphacool comes along with a way to dump more heat into your loop.

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+1 any review of this product needs to have temps monitored otherwise it's worthless. DDC's are well known for running hot and putting something that doesn't have enough heatsinking already in a box surrounded by foam just seems to be a terrible idea.

Thanks for the Review ! :up:

I installed a dedicated temperature sensor inside the insulated box right next to the pump and after several hours of constant use running Prime95 amongst other programs and it only showed a rise of 2.6C over ambient. This is even better than I had hoped and was expecting several degrees at least so I wouldn't say there is anything to worry about in that department. I used an external digital temperature gauge for these readings.

I hope this answers those people who queried it.