This is a very quiet heatsink and even though overclockers may find the subsequent thermal performance not up to their lofty standards regular users will be more than appreciative. Computer noise has been a major issue with us for the last year or so and we are glad to see that manufacturers are finally coming around in the mainstream markets and offering low noise cooling solutions.

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
	Coolermaster	HHC-L61	42.2 dB	quiet
	Coolermaster	HSC-V62	43.7 dB
	JMC Prducts	400023	46.6 dB
	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	AE01625B	58.2 dB
	Sibak	AC02625B	59.7 dB
	Coolermaster	HHC-001	59.9 dB
	Dynatron	DY1206BH-625	63.3 dB
	Dynatron	DC1206BMP	65.1 dB	louder

Aside from the 92mm Zalman fans on the lowest of speed settings the Coolermaster HHC-L61 is one of the quietest heatsinks we have measured to date. The thriving low-noise cooling market is being met with some really good products certainly. With a measured noise level under real world conditions of 42.2 dB the HHC-L61 is very quiet. Now, let's now see how the heatsink performs in our synthetic thermal tests...