Kaby Lake 7700K 5GHz AIO Cooler Mega Test

SilverStone Tundra TD03 E

Price @ OCUK:  £64.99

Technical Specification

 

Up Close

The icy Blue and white themed packaging is a world away from the aggressive Black and yellow of the Corsair coolers we’ve just looked at.  Under the skin though the packaging is very similar, with SilverStone using the same egg box card as nearly all manufacturers

  

 

 The rear of the box has some nice illustrations of the product key features, with the sides giving all the relevant technical info.

  

 

The TD03 E is a 120mm fan based cooler which has a 27mm thick radiator, which makes it only 2mm off being half as thick as the H80i v2.  The rad is connected to the cold plate by means of matte rubber tubing.

  

 

The sides of the radiator are clad in high gloss perspex which are laid over a carbon fibre effect beneath.  We think the plates lend a touch of design flair to what would otherwise be a plain and boring radiator. 

  

 

The pump and cold head assembly is made from an Nickel coated unibody Aluminium block, so it should be pretty robust.  The contact plate itself is copper and is bonded to the block rather than being screwed.  Even the black mounting brackets are Aluminium as opposed to plastic, so the whole thing is pretty bomb proof.

  

 

SilverStone have used brazing fins as opposed to the more common fin structure within the rad.  They claim a 40% increase in efficiency, but if our memory serves when we last looked at this technology, it didn’t seem to do as well as anticipated.  In total though there are 12 water channels, with a fin density of 12 FPI.

  

 

Along with a pair of fans, you get all the mounting hardware you ned to mount to a variety of Intel and AMD CPUs.  Importantly, SilverStone have also included a fan splitter.

  

 

The Tundra is relatively easy to install, with the only fiddly bit being around mating the rad and fan through the rear panel of the case.  I’d liken it to trying to make a sandwich vertically in your hand without the aid of a chopping board.

  

 

Look carefully at the radiator, and with the light falling on it right you can make out the carbon fibre effect we alluded to earlier.  We found the tubing to be really flexible whilst at the same time resisting kinking.