Acoustic Samples: Listen to this Heatsink!

RUnning under power the CNPS7000-Cu is a pretty quiet heatsink as you can tell by the waveform shown below. The motor does not generate any perceptible noise, but the air moving through the fins does to a small degree. To listen to this heatsink for yourself in operation, be sure to click on the little headphones icon below and download the Acoustic Sample 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. Measurements are made on the dB (A) scale.

FrostyTech Sound Level Results
-	Manufacturer	Model	Noise Level	Scale
	Thermal Integrations (low)	TI-V7035TN	39.2 dB	quiet
	Zalman	CNPS7000-Cu	41.7 dB
	Zalman	CNPS6500-AlCu	47.4/28.9 dB
	Intel	Socket 478	42.5 dB
	Arkua	848X-6B	49.3 dB
	Cho-Liang	CL-CB0094-1A	49.8 dB
	Cho-Liang	CL-CB00881	50.2 dB
	Taisol	CEP426151A	50.7 dB
	JMC	400094	50.8 dB
	Vantec	CCK-7025	51.4 dB
	Arkua	838T-7G	51.7 dB
	ChoLiang	CB0307Z17	52.9 dB
	Dynatron	DC1207BMW	53.0 dB
	Thermal Integration (high)	TI-V7035TN	53.6 dB
	Zalman	CNPS5700D-Cu	53.8 dB
	Globalwin	VA476	54.2 dB
	Eumax	DW-45	54.2 dB
	Dynatron	DC1206BMV	55.1 dB
	Glacialtech	Igloo 3300	55.4 dB
	ChoLiang	CB0309Z17	55.7 dB
	AVC	117140	56.1 dB
	Taisol	CCP445172	57.5 dB
	CPUMate	DIA10500	57.5 dB
	NengTyi	NW6700	58.0 dB
	Coolermaster	IHC-H71	64.4 dB	louder

We measured the Zalman CNPS7000-Cu under operation (without the Fanmate 1) at just over 41 dBA. Chances are that from a few feet away you'd be hard pressed to tell if you computer was on, save for other noisy components you might have installed. Up next, thermal results.