Acoustic Samples: Listen to this Heatsink!

This is a noisy heatsink as you can hear for yourself by clicking on the little headphones and downloading the MP3 file of the IHC-H71 in operation. The bit 70mm fan spins fast, and as a result you have better cooling with a penalty of higher noise levels. Hear it for yourself and 'see' what we mean.

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
	Zalman	CNPS6500-AlCu	47.4/28.9 dB	quiet
	Intel	Socket 478	42.5 dB
	Cho-Liang	CL-CB0094-1A	49.8 dB
	Cho-Liang	CL-CB00881	50.2 dB
	Dynatron	DC1206BMV	55.1 dB
	AVC	117140	56.1 dB
	NengTyi	NW6700	58.0 dB
	Coolermaster	IHC-H71	64.4 dB	louder

The stock Intel heatsink is pretty damn quiet, and that is the one saving grace of Intel heatsinks. They work well enough, and produce very little noise. The Coolermaster here produces the highest noise levels of any other heatsink in our small and growing list of heatsink sound measurements. Good for performance users, bad for consumers looking for something on the quiet side.