Conclusion
Today we looked at the performance of the SilverStone IceMyst 420 Cooler and stacked it up against various competitors that we’ve previously reviewed to see how it would perform on our 13900 K-based test bed. We’ll recap the performance below and see how the SilverStone IceMyst 420 stood up to the heat in our kitchen!
Summary of Temperatures
From a temperature performance perspective, the SilverStone IceMyst 420 did a good job of keeping everything cool across each scenario that we tested. Even dropping down to 600 RPM on the fans to create a rather silent environment, the 420mm radiator did just fine. When overclocking to our 275W testing scenario, we saw some of the best numbers that we’ve seen with our current test platform.
Not mentioned in the above chart is the impact of adding a few iMF70 fans to the mix for additional cooling. Overall, they did not make a material difference to the CPU temperature in any of the tested scenarios. If they made an impact at all, it was at the maximum fan levels where a 1-2 degree Celsius improvement was found.
Summary of Sound Levels
The SilverStone IceMyst 420 was quiet and comparable to the Corsair H170i’s noise profile where they were audible at full speed and 1500 RPM levels but dropped to silence at 1000 RPM. At full blast, it announced its cooling power at 48.6 dB(A) but quickly stepped down to inaudible as it sunk below 1000 RPM.
Not noted in this chart is the impact of the three iMF70 fans. These fans did not significantly raise the noise production at maximum/1500 RPM fan values, however, added 4-5 dB(A) to the noise generation at the 600 and 1000 RPM test levels.
Overall, your ears won’t notice if you’re running the SilverStone IceMyst 420 at 1500 RPM which gives it a great intersection between performance and sound levels. One thing to note is that the iMF70 fan speed is tied to the water pump speed, therefore, since all of our testing utilizes 100% pump speeds, this noise difference is likely higher than what you’d see in the real world where you’re running your water pump RPM on a fan curve based on your CPU temperatures.
Impact of the iMF70 Add On Fans
While the overall CPU temperatures were not materially impacted by the addition of three iMF70 fans, we decided to check out the temperature of our DDR5 modules during testing to see if the fans added anything to the equation. We found that the three (really, the one pointed at the DDR5) iMF70 fans made a significant improvement to our memory temperatures. Without the fans, the modules warmed up to 46.5 degrees Celsius, but with the fans, the modules were 18.7 degrees cooler at 27.8 degrees Celsius.
Final Points
Looking at the charts, the SilverStone IceMyst 420 outperformed the competition which included the Corsair H170i ELITE and the Cooler Master 360 ATMOS from a thermal perspective. Looking at the acoustics side of things, it was roughly equivalent to the Corsair H170i ELITE and a bit noisier than the Cooler Master 360 ATMOS.
From a value perspective, the SilverStone IceMyst 420 is around the $163 mark at the time of publication in the etail environment, which is just $8 more than the Cooler Master 360 ATMOS and about half the price of the Corsair H170i (that also has an LCD screen and an iCue controller included with it). Additional iMF70 fans run about $16 each, so as configured our 3 fan version would cost about $211 to acquire.
With all this considered, we have a new performance king out of the 420mm AIOs that we’ve reviewed here at The FPS Review. Considering the budget, it’s a great value at the stock configuration as it’s priced in the same ballpark as a number of 360mm AIOS. The addition of the iMF70 fans to cool memory and VRMs is also quite welcome as it gives your rig a unique look while being functional at the same time. If you’re looking for the best-performing and best-value 420mm AIO, the SilverStone IceMyst 420 is certainly the one to add to your cart.
