Acoustic Samples: Listen to this Heatsink!

The Akrua 648N-6B doesn't make much noise because the fan is small, and rotates at only 4700 RPM. To listen to the heatsink in operation anyway's, click on the little pair of headphones and download 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. Measurements are in dB, on the A scale.

FrostyTech Sound Level Results
-	Manufacturer	Model	Noise Level	Scale
	Arkua	648N-6B	46.6 dB	quieter
	Vantec	CCK6012	49.5 dB
	Akasa	AK350	50.2 dB	louder

As we already mentioned, the Arkua 648N-6B is a quiet heatsink - noise measurements with the Omega sound meter peg it at about 46 dB.

Synthetic Temperature Test Results: *Ranked according to 100W small interface die test results.

1U - 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
	Dynatron	DC1206BMR	23.8	51.0	56.5		80.6	86.8	silver	1	med	stiff
	Spire	5R057B1M3R	23.0	44.9	69.7		66.4	89.7	silver	1	med	easy
	Arkua	648N-6B	22.4	54.6	58.1		84.6	90.3	ceramic	1	low	med
	Vantec	CCK6012	23.5	58.4	60.7		91.7	96.5	ceramic	1	low	stiff
	Akasa	AK350	21.7	57.7	59.1		90.3	99.9	ceramic	1	low	med
	Alpha	Pal153	21.9	60.4	62.4		97.4	104.3	silver	1	low	easy
	Thermaltake	DTFCF014-1	26.0	60.0	69.6		94.2	108.4	ceramic	1	low	easy
	Thermaltake	TFCFR06	24.9	67.1	71.3		106.1	112.1	ceramic	1	low	med
	Vantec	FCE-6010	25.6	70.7	72.4		111.3	116.9	silver	1	low	stiff
				50W	50W		100W	100W

When tested on a 100W heat load we are stressing the Arkua heatsink just a tad beyond its rated specs, but then again, we do the same for all heatsink. The 648N-6B is ideally suited for AthlonXP 1600+ or 1.13GHz PIII's according to the manufacturer. In the initial set of results, the Arkua 1U heatsink performs fairly well, but before we draw conclusions let's move right to the final rise above ambient temperature results.

1U - 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
	Dynatron	DC1206BMR	27.2	52.7		56.8	63.0
	Spire	5R057B1M3R	21.9	46.7		43.4	66.7
	Arkua	648N-6B	32.2	35.7		62.2	67.9
	Vantec	CCK6012	34.9	37.2		68.2	73.0
	Akasa	AK350	36.0	37.4		68.6	78.2
	Alpha	Pal153	38.6	40.5		75.5	82.4
	Thermaltake	DTFCF014-1	34.0	43.6		68.2	82.4
	Thermaltake	TFCR06	42.2	46.4		81.2	87.2
	Vantec	FCE-6010	45.1	46.8		85.7	91.3
			50W	50W		100W	100W

The Spire copper heatsink and the Arkua 648N-6B perform at roughly the same level on the small copper block, but because of its larger mass, the Spire heatsink nets a gain when mounted to the larger copper interface die.

I would be a bit hesitant to use any actively cooled heatsink in a mission critical 1U server (passive is more reliable in those instances), but for small SBC's or older servers with limited space, the Arkua 648N-6B may be just the right trick. Keep in mind, that since there is a large cooling benefit from the exhaust air, dust bunnies clogging up the aluminum fins may have a big impact. Overall though, we are quite pleased with the performance of this very small heatsink from Arkua.