Verdict: All is calm, all is bright...
The Silent Knight II is more compact than the Hyper 212 but it has copper rather than aluminium fins, which bodes well for the Silent Knight II's cooling ability. Copper is a denser metal than aluminium and a better conductor of heat, which means that the fins will conduct the heat from the six contorted heatpipes and place it in the path of the fan more rapidly.
The 92mm fan in the centre of the fins draws in air on one side and expels it out of the other. This arrangement makes for an attractive cooler but it's not blowing air over all the fins.
With the blue fan LED glowing, and the PWM-controlled fan whirring up to speed, the cooler was louder than the Hyper 212 (attesting to the disadvantage of using a smaller, faster-spinning fan). However, even with our overclocked and overvolted Intel Xeon X3210 under full load, the PWM fan wasn't gratingly loud.
The temperatures of said CPU were good too. The Silent Knight II cooled it to 7ûC below the reference Intel cooler. However, the colossal Tuniq Tower 120 also costs around £30 and is better at cooling our quad-core chip. At a low fan speed, it matches the Silent Knight II for cooling ability but is much quieter. The Silent Knight II is no easier to fit than the Tuniq Tower 120, as it also requires you to remove the motherboard. Perhaps more damningly, the £17 Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro outperforms the Silent Knight II by 1ûC, while producing a similar level of noise.
Conclusion
If you have a monster CPU to cool and you don't fancy water-cooling it, the Tunic Tower 120 is still the best cooler around. However, if your cooling requirements are more modest - perhaps you only have the heat of a Core 2 Duo to subdue - then the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro is the best bet, even if it is rather dull-looking.
