With the 15x70x70mm fan on the Igloo 3300 is a little bit on the loud side as far as socket 478 heatsinks go, so there isn't going to be any great acoustic surprises here. To hear the heatsink in operation for yourself, click on the little headphones below and download the MP3 file.

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
	Taisol	CEP426151A	50.7 dB
	ChoLiang	CB0307Z17	52.9 dB
	Dynatron	DC1207BMW	53.0 dB
	Globalwin	VA476	54.2 dB
	Dynatron	DC1206BMV	55.1 dB
	Glacialtech	Igloo 3300	55.4 dB
	ChoLiang	CB0309Z17	55.7 dB
	AVC	117140	56.1 dB
	NengTyi	NW6700	58.0 dB
	Coolermaster	IHC-H71	64.4 dB	louder

We measured the Igloo 3300 with our sound meter under real world conditions and it produced 55.4 dB of noise. This is above the stock intel acoustic results and towards the louder end of the curve on a whole. Penitum 4 heatsinks are generally quieter than their socket 370/A counterparts, but in this case the difference really isn't there.