Acoustic Samples: Listen to this Heatsink!

We're still refining the process of capturing an accurate waveform image of the sound a heatsink produces, so while this solid line of grey is accurate, it is out of scale. The Crown does make a fair bit of noise, but if you went by the graph alone it would look as though we were talking about a jet engine at full blast.

The best way to hear for yourself what the Tocools Crown sounds like with its 80mm Delta fan is to just click on the headphones and listen to the MP3 recording.

Sound Level Measurements:

Listening to the noise a heatsink makes allows you to hear things that pure numbers alone cannot get across, but to further emphasize Frosty's reliance on cold hard facts when evaluating a heatsink we also take Decibel readings with a sound level meter. The list of heatsinks which have had their noise level measured is still growing, but this is now firmly part of our test procedures.

FrostyTech Sound Level Results
-	Manufacturer	Model	Noise Level	Scale
	Zalman	All Flower HSF	47.4/28.9 dB	quiet
	Noisecontrol	Silverado	50.8 dB
	Thermal Integration	Ti-V77L	53.0 dB
	Tocools	Crown	54.5 db
	Dynatron	DC1206BMP	65.1 dB	louder

Tocools crown is a noisy heatsink which is over the 50 dB mark. The Dynatron heatsink with its 38mm Delta fan is very noisy by contrast, and is substantially over the next mark of 60 dB.

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	Thermal Integration	TI-V77L	26.5	39.1	44.4		57.5	63.6	grey	1	med	med
2	Swiftech	MCXC370	21.4	38.3	43.4		53.5	65.7	none	1	med	med
3	Tocools	Crown	23.2	38.8	53.2		47.9	70.2	none	1	loud	stiff
4	OCZ	Gladiator	21.4	33.3	47.3		50.6	70.3	none	1	very loud	med
5	Vantec	CCK-6027D	27.4	45.4	49.6		64.9	73.4	none	1	med	med
6	Swiftech	MCX370	22.3	42.0	46.1		60.3	75.6	none	1	med	hard
7	Zalman	CNPS6000-Cu	24.8	46.4	53.8		65.6	78.2	none	1	very low	easy
8	AVC	112AM1	24.8	46.6	52.9		70.1	79.6	none	1	low	stiff
9	Thermaltake	Volcano 6cu+	26.5	40.3	55.3		58.6	84.4	carbon	1	loud	med
10	Spire	5T060B1H3R	26.7	42.7	57.5		64.6	85.1	none	1	low	med
11	Zalman	CNPS6000AlCu	24.9	48.3	56.3		72.2	86.0	none	1	low	med
12	Thermalright	CB-6L	24.6	50.3	57.7		73.8	92.7	white pad	1	low	med
				50W	50W		100W	100W

For a manufacturer we have previously not tested, and a heatsink which is still in prototype stages, the Tocools Crown, a massive heatsink by most standards, has managed to produced some very impressive initial results.

It has out-performed many all copper heatsinks, some of which have very powerful 60mm fans. The 80mm fan is definitely an asset, but the unique base design and overall construction seem to be working very well too.

Rise Above Ambient Temp. (c)
	Mfg.	Model	27mm large copper block	15mm small copper block		27mm large copper block	15mm small copper block
			50W	50W		100W	100W
1	Thermal Integration	TI-V77L	12.6	17.9		31.0	37.1
2	Swiftech	MCXC370	16.9	22.0		32.1	44.3
3	Vantec	CCK-6027D	18.0	22.2		37.5	46.0
4	Tocools	Crown	15.6	30.0		24.7	47.0
5	OCZ	Gladiator	12.0	26.0		29.2	49.0
6	Swiftech	MCX370	19.7	23.8		38.0	53.3
7	Zalman	CNPS6000-Cu	21.6	29.0		40.8	53.4
8	AVC	112AM1	21.8	28.1		45.3	54.8
9	Thermaltake	Volcano 6cu+	13.8	28.8		32.1	57.9
10	Spire	5T060B1H3R	16.0	30.8		37.9	58.4
11	Zalman	CNPS6000AlCu	23.4	31.4		47.3	61.1
12	Thermalright	CB-6L	25.7	33.1		49.2	68.1
			50W	50W		100W	100W

Conclusion:

The final results for the Tocools Crown remain very impressive. Even though the heatsink is still in the prototype stages it has been given a good set of features to ensure it some very good first time performance. The 80mm fan is a big plus, and while the heatsink may be a bit large for some Socket A motherboards, it is at least a little bit quieter than those coolers with the 38mm thick 60mm Delta fans.

With some further refinement, the folks at Tocools should be able to improve on the pre production unit we had for testing, using a better clip mechanism, and greatly simplifying how the fan is attached to the heatsink body. The base finish is perfect, and we hope that future revisions continue to remain milled flat as this is the only way any heatsink should be finished.