Introduction

From the Silverstone website:

Here at SilverStone Technology, we continue to pride ourselves in providing the highest standards in designing and manufacturing computer enclosures, power supplies, and accessories. Our pursuit for first class aesthetic appeal is relentless; our teams of devoted engineers are constantly searching for the most suitable technologies that meet end-users with different needs and make our products as technologically sound as they are beautiful.

When it comes to the PC-enthusiast space, Silverstone has earned a large following through their many exceptional products. The company's policy of perfect quality, outstanding design, and customer satisfaction has made them a top choice of enthusiasts the world over. This policy, paired with their outstanding cases, coolers, fans, power supplies, and more, also made them a world leader of PC hardware and accessories.

Silverstone can trace their success to many products; however, a few do stand out. The unique layout of the original Raven case, for example, made it a smash hit. Each version of the Temjin- and Sugo series of cases continues to offer top quality and exceptional design. Their Heligon HE01 CPU cooler I reviewed earlier also shows their desire to offer outstanding designs. Silverstone simply continues to deliver fantastic products to the ever-evolving PC market.

The cooler I will review today is the Silverstone Argon AR03: a single-fan tower cooler that comes with a slight twist while, on the surface, looking to be similar to what you may have seen before. Three version of this cooler are available: the Argon 01, Argon 02, and the one I have here today, the Argon AR03. Each one is made to handle different situations, but all of them make use of Heatpipe Direct Contact (HDC) technology. The Argon AR03 has six heatpipes that are arranged to maximize the contact area on a CPU with a large IHS, such as on Intel's LGA1366 and LGA2011 processors.

Packaging & Contents

The box for Silverstone's Argon AR03 CPU cooler is bright and catchy with its blue and white colors. It is rather small in size at just 24 cm in length, 18 cm in width, and 11.5 cm in height. The front of the box shows off the cooler's appearance and lists a few features. The bottom has a few more shots of the cooler from various angles. The back has a large shot of the cooler and fan.

The top of the box is covered in a few close-up shots that detail the features of the cooler. These include widely spaced aluminum fins, the aerodynamic fan-blade design, anti-vibration rubber mounts, and six Ø6 mm heatpipes using HDC (Heatpipe Direct Contact) technology.

Contents

With the box open, it is easy to see the packaging used to hold everything in place. Silverstone mostly used solid cardboard to keep everything situated in the box. While not as nice as foam, it is definitely environmentally friendly. That said, the packaging here is adequate.


Silverstone seems to like keeping things simple with their coolers, and the Argon AR03 is no exception as it is a single tower heatsink. The instructions are minimalistic at best. I would like to see a more robust set of instructions as both the wording and its images are tiny. The mounting hardware has been sealed into small plastic bags, which is the norm. A backplate has naturally been included as well.


As can be seen here, various mounting arms for Intel- and AMD sockets are included. Four screws that go through the motherboard and into the backplate are also included. Due to the mounting system's design, Silverstone included the crossbar and two Phillips screws for bolting the cooler to the mounting arms. The fan with model number AS1225H12 adds a splash of color with its blue and white design. Silverstone included eight anti-vibration fan mounts out of rubber, which would allow you to attach two fans in total to the Argon AR03.

Common parts supplied for mounting include:

• 8x Anti-vibration fan mounts
• 4x LGA2011 mounting screws
• 4x AMD/Intel mounting screws
• 2x AMD mounting arms
• 2x Intel mounting arms
• 1x 120 mm x 25 mm fan
• 1x Crossbar
• 1x Backplate
• 1x Packet of thermal paste
• 1x Allen key