Alphacool Laing DDC - Silentbox Review

[Dark Mantis]

Alphacool Laing DDC-Silentbox

by Dark Mantis



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.





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.





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.





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.





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.







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.



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

 

[Dark Mantis]

As an added observation after being asked by one reader I tested the internal foam to see if it was fire retardant which it does indeed seem to be. The foam will shrivel and smoulder when a naked flame is held on it but it doesn't actually catch fire which in the interests of safety is a big plus.

[Dark Mantis]

I was also asked how much heat the box retained when working. Well I did some tests and found that after several hours of running Prime95 etc the maximum increase in the box was 2.6C. This was very little and better than I expected. I used an external digital temperature gauge to get the readings.