Acoustic Samples: Listen to this Heatsink!

Finally we have some nice sound images to share with you! I tell you, as much as everyone likes these little sound clips of the heatsinks I sometimes think it would make things so much easier to just pass over them sometimes.... not that I would though. Okay, the Arkua 628 is about a 50dB heatsink and shouldn't really be too bad all things considered. Of course, to listen to this heatsink for yourself, simply click on the little pair of headphones and download the MP3 recording..

FrostyTech Acoustic Sampling Chamber
Standard Waveform view of a 10 second recording. Click on the headphones to listen to an MP3 recording of this heatsink in operation.

Sound Level Measurements:

Listening to the actual noise a heatsink makes allows you to hear what pure numbers alone cannot get across. To further emphasize FrostyTech's reliance on cold hard facts when evaluating a heatsink, we also take Decibel readings with a sound level meter. These results may be higher than the manufacturer's listed specs, but then again these are real world measurements.

FrostyTech Sound Level Results
-	Manufacturer	Model	Noise Level	Scale
	JMC Prducts	400023	46.6 dB	quiet
	Zalman	All Flower HSF	47.4/28.9 dB
	Taisol	CGK760092	48.4 dB
	GlacialTech	Igloo 2310	49.4 dB
	Arkua	628	50.7 dB
	Noisecontrol	Silverado	50.8 dB
	NengTyi	XPC5000	52.4 dB
	Thermal Integration	TI-V77L	53.0 dB
	Tocools	Crown	54.5 dB
	Cybercooler	P5750	55.4 dB
	Sibak	AT01515B	55.8 dB
	Sibak	AC02625B	59.7 dB
	Dynatron	DY1206BH-625	63.3 dB
	Dynatron	DC1206BMP	65.1 dB	louder

Anything under 55 dB is pretty decent, and at 50 dB the Arkua 628 does pretty well in this regard. The fan doesn't draw that much current so I would have to peg RPM's at about 5000. This is pretty standard of most 20mm thick fans.

Synthetic Temperature Test Results: *Ranked according to 100W small interface die test results.

FrostyTech Synthetic Temperature Test Platform Results
	Mfg.	Model	Ambient Temp.	27mm large copper block	15mm small copper block		27mm large copper block	15mm small copper block	Thermal pad	No. Fans	Fan Noise	Clip force
				50W	50W		100W	100W
1	Arkua	628	23.9	42.7	42.1		58.9	62.3	none	1	med	med
2	Thermal Integration	TI-V77L	26.5	39.1	44.4		57.5	63.6	grey	1	med	med
3	Sibak	AC02625B	23.2	41.3	59.0		43.2	64.7	none	1	loud	med
4	Swiftech	MCXC370	21.4	38.3	43.4		53.5	65.7	none	1	med	med
5	Tocools	Crown	23.2	38.8	53.2		47.9	70.2	none	1	loud	stiff
6	Dynatron	DY1206BH-625	23.2	40.0	55.1		47.6	70.4	none	1	loud	stiff
7	Vantec	CCK-6027D	27.4	45.4	49.6		64.9	73.4	none	1	med	med
8	Cybercooler	P5750	23.3	43.4	63.5		49.2	74.9
9	Swiftech	MCX370	22.3	42.0	46.1		60.3	75.6	none	1	med	hard
10	NengTyi	XPC5000	23.9	46.5	49.1		69.1	76.1	none	1	med	med
11	Taisol	CGK760092	23.4	42.7	61.2		51.3	77.5	pink	1	low	med
12	Zalman	CNPS6000-Cu	24.8	46.4	53.8		65.6	78.2	none	1	very low	easy
13	AVC	112AM1	24.8	46.6	52.9		70.1	79.6	none	1	low	stiff
14	GlacialTech	Igloo 2310	23.5	44.9	66.7		53.7	80.8	silver	1	med	very stiff
15	Thermaltake	Volcano 6cu+	26.5	40.3	55.3		58.6	84.4	carbon	1	loud	med
16	JMC Products	400023	23.1	44.5	65.2		55.3	85.2	Chomerics T725	1	low	easy
17	Sibak	AT01515B	23.0	45.1	64.6		60.1	95.2	none	2	med	stiff
				50W	50W		100W	100W

Well it's not often that we see a heatsink jump right to the top of our list of reference heatsinks, but it appears as though the Arkua 628 may just be taking out the TI-V77L for once and all. With these heatsinks a lot of the cooling power comes from where the exhaust air is directed - directly at the heat source. Other heatsinks which exhaust all their warm air off to one side really aren't making good use of that air which is still substantially cooler then the processor.

Lets load up the final rise above ambient temperature results and see where everything plays out in the end.