Thermalright’s SI-100 is a 120mm class low profile CPU cooler, similar to the C14S. The SI-100 is 100mm in height vs. NH-C14S at 115mm.
SPECIFICATIONS
| MODEL | SI-100 |
| DIMENSIONS | L: 120 x W: 108 x H: 99.8mm (including 25mm thick fan) |
| MATERIALS | 6x 6mm copper heat-pipes, copper base (nickel coated), aluminium cooling fins |
| COMPATIBILITY | Intel: 115X/1200/1700 AMD: AM4/AM5 |
| FANS | 1x TL-E12B (2000 max.rmp) |
| RAM CLEARANCE | 50mm |
TEST SYSTEM
Testing is carried out on BC1 Mini v2 (open testbench), using the following hardware, in 20°C ambient room temperature. We noise normalised the cooler fan speed to 35dBA at distance of 50cm. This helps eliminate brute force cooling from higher RPM fans.
| CASE | BC1 Mini v2 (Open Testbench) |
| MOTHERBOARD | Rog Strix B650E-I Gaming WiFi (paid link) |
| CPU | R5 7600X / R7 7700X (paid links) |
| CPU COOLER | Thermalright SI-100 (paid link) |
| PSU | Extreme 850R (paid link) |
| RAM | 32GB Gskill DDR5, 6000MHz, CL30 (paid link) |
NOISE
At 70% fan speed, the SI-100’s included 120x25mm fan outputs around 35dBA noise at distance 50cm. It’s not as subjectively quiet as the NF-A12x25 for instance, but is still decent enough fan for price.
THERMAL BENCHMARKS
We use Cinebench R23 multicore (stability test), for period of 30 minutes. This provides worse case scenario for a given CPU. CPU coolers are tested across range of CPU’s for data validation and to reduce risk of errors in testing. This also helps account for variables between CPU platforms.
CONCLUSIONS
Thermalright’s SI-100 is excellent performer, even outpacing the larger, heavier Noctua NH-C14S in our testing. It offers reasonable motherboard and RAM compatibility and is very aggressively priced relatively to thermal performance available.