Acoustic Samples: Listen to this Heatsink!

The Crown heatsink with the Panaflo fan exhibits some nice low noise properties and still manages relatively good cooling properties. The waveform of the second heatsink, the Crown heatsink with the large fan, is a might size more noisy and this translates into better cooling performance. As with every FrostyTech heatsink review, click on the headphones and listen to the MP3 recording to hear what these two heatsinks actually sound like in operation.

Small Fan - 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.

Large Fan - 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
	JMC Prducts	400023	46.6 dB	quiet
	Zalman	All Flower HSF	47.4/28.9 dB
	Tocools	Crown (sm fan)	48.3 dB
	Taisol	CGK760092	48.4 dB
	GlacialTech	Igloo 2310	49.4 dB
	Noisecontrol	Silverado	50.8 dB
	Tocools	Crown	54.5 dB
	Sibak	AT01515B	55.8 dB
	Sibak	AC02625B	59.7 dB
	Thermal Integration	TI-V77N	61.3 dB
	Tocools	Crown (lg fan)	62.4 dB
	Dynatron	DY1206BH-625	63.3 dB
	Dynatron	DC1206BMP	65.1 dB	louder

Okay so we expected to see the small fan come in with lower noise levels (48.3 dB) and the larger fan with higher ones (62.4 dB). There is nothing surprising about that is there :)

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-V77N	23.3	40.0	41.0		55.4	59.1	none	1	loud	med
2	Sibak	AC02625B	23.2	41.3	43.2		59.0	64.7	none	1	loud	med
3	Swiftech	MCXC370	21.4	38.3	43.4		53.5	65.7	none	1	med	med
4	Tocools	Crown (lg fan)	21.4	38.6	44.4		54.8	67.9	none	1	loud	stiff
5	Tocools	Crown (proto)	23.2	38.8	53.2		47.9	70.2	none	1	loud	stiff
6	Dynatron	DY1206BH-625	23.2	40.0	55.1		47.6	70.4	none	1	loud	stiff
7	Vantec	CCK-6027D	27.4	45.4	49.6		64.9	73.4	none	1	med	med
8	Swiftech	MCX370	22.3	42.0	46.1		60.3	75.6	none	1	med	hard
9	Tocools	Crown (sm fan)	21.3	42.5	48.6		61.3	75.9	none	1	low	stiff
10	Taisol	CGK760092	23.4	42.7	51.3		61.2	77.5	pink	1	low	med
11	Zalman	CNPS6000-Cu	24.8	46.4	53.8		65.6	78.2	none	1	very low	easy
12	AVC	112AM1	24.8	46.6	52.9		70.1	79.6	none	1	low	stiff
13	GlacialTech	Igloo 2310	23.5	44.9	53.7		66.7	80.8	silver	1	med	very stiff
14	Thermaltake	Volcano 6cu+	26.5	40.3	55.3		58.6	84.4	carbon	1	loud	med
15	JMC Products	400023	23.1	44.5	55.3		65.2	85.2	Chomerics T725	1	low	easy
16	Zalman	CNPS6000AlCu	24.9	48.3	56.3		72.2	86.0	none	1	low	med
17	Sibak	AT01515B	23.0	45.1	60.1		64.6	95.2	none	2	med	stiff
				50W	50W		100W	100W

The Crown heatsink with the smaller fan pulls in some good, but average performance numbers. This is a quieter solution and one that would sufficient for non-overclocked computers. The Crown heatsink with the larger fan manages to produce much better thermal results and would be classed as a mid-level performance heatsink. There are other heatsinks which will cool better, but for the materials (ie. no copper at all) it does remarkably well. Lets have a look at the rise above ambient temperatures and see where everything really stands.

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-V77N	16.7	17.7		32.1	35.8
2	Sibak	AC02625B	18.1	35.8		20.0	41.5
3	Swiftech	MCXC370	16.9	22.0		32.1	44.3
4	Tocools	Crown (lg fan)	17.2	23.1		33.4	45.7
5	Vantec	CCK-6027D	18.0	22.2		37.5	46.0
6	Tocools	Crown	15.6	30.0		24.7	47.0
7	Dynatron	DY1206BH-625	16.8	31.9		24.4	47.2
8	Swiftech	MCX370	19.7	23.8		38.0	53.3
9	Zalman	CNPS6000-Cu	21.6	29.0		40.8	53.4
10	Taisol	CGK760092	19.3	37.8		27.9	54.1
11	Tocools	Crown (sm fan)	21.2	27.3		41.8	54.6
12	AVC	112AM1	21.8	28.1		45.3	54.8
13	GlacialTech	Igloo 2310	21.4	43.2		30.2	57.3
14	Thermaltake	Volcano 6cu+	13.8	28.8		32.1	57.9
15	Zalman	CNPS6000AlCu	23.4	31.4		47.3	61.1
16	JMC Products	400023	21.3	42.0		32.1	62.0
17	Sibak	AT01515B	22.1	41.6		37.1	72.2
			50W	50W		100W	100W

The gap between the two heatsinks widens here, but the Crown heatsink with the larger fan still remains in a very good position considering it is made from just aluminum. We have said time and time again that larger fans are not really the way to building a good heatsink - it is the design of the actual heatsink which plays one of the most important parts in the overall process. Larger fans are just an easy way of increasing how a bad heatsink design will perform.

The Crown heatsink as we can see are designed pretty well, and work particularly well with a high RPM fan. Average systems can make use of the smaller fan for good performance with less noise. For a newcomer, the Tocools heatsinks are pretty good. The only real problem is the clip, and that is something which can be fixed or replaced.

With the unique design of the heatsink, and some pretty stiff competition with all copper heatsinks, Tocools have got something very neat on their hands - it will be interesting to see how far they take this design. If they ever make a full copper version you can bet the performance will really be worth checking out!