Acoustic Samples: Listen to this Heatsink!

The waveform image tells most of the story; the fan makes quite a bit of noise. You can listen to this heatsink in operation for yourself by clicking on the headphones and playing 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
	verax	P14	32.1 dB	Quiet
	Verax	P11T	35.3 dB
	Coolermaster	HHC-L61	42.2 dB
	Coolermaster	HSC-V62	43.7 dB
	Spire	5F263	44.5 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
	Cho-Liang	CB0307U-17	49.5 dB
	Arkua	628	50.7 dB
	Noisecontrol	Silverado	50.8 dB
	NengTyi	XPC5000	52.4 dB
	Spire	5T235	52.5 dB
	Ajigo	MF014021	52.8 dB
	Thermal Integration	TI-V77L	53.0 dB
	Coolink	H1T	53.4 dB
	Ajigo	SF017011	53.6 dB
	GlacialTech	Igloo 2400	53.9 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
	Sibak	AC06725TH	62.4 dB
	Coolink	U2P	63.3 dB
	Dynatron	DY1206BH-625	63.3 dB
	Dynatron	DC1206BMP	65.1 dB	louder

This is a big fan, and we weren't expecting it to produce anything less than sheer noise. At 63.3 dB the heatsink is at the upper bar in terms of loudness, and won't be practical for situations where the computer is in a bedroom on 24x7 for example.