On the quietest of settings this Coolermaster heatsink is really nice. Turn that dial up and crank out the speed and hold on because the fan noise becomes really, really loud. I'd recommend keeping the fan's RPM somewhere in the middle because we have seen some cases with power supply fans which would eventually stall at the lower speeds (they still worked, and turned freely at the higher settings).

Because of the fan speed control we are offering you the opportunity to listen to the Coolermaster HSCV83 while it is running at the lowest (virtually silent) speed, and the fastest and loudest setting. 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.

(high) 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.

(high) 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
	verax	P14	32.1 dB	Quiet
	Coolermaster	HSCV83 (low)	35.2 dB
	Verax	P11T	35.3 dB
	Spire	5U213C1H3G	35.7 dB
	Coolermaster	HHC-L61	42.2 dB
	Coolermaster	HSC-V62	43.7 dB
	Akasa	AK821	44.2 dB
	Spire	5F263	44.5 dB
	Akasa	Ag Mountain2Q	45.5 dB
	Taisol	CMK702	47.3 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
	Tocools	Novasonic	52.2 dB
	NengTyi	XPC5000	52.4 dB
	Spire	5T235	52.5 dB
	Thermal Integration	TI-V77L	53.0 dB
	GlacialTech	Igloo 2400	53.9 dB
	Eumax	EU01	55.4 dB
	Sibak	AE01625B	58.2 dB
	AVC	Tundra 2	58.4 dB
	Sibak	AC02625B	59.7 dB
	Coolermaster	HHC-001	59.9 dB
	Coolermaster	HSCV83 (high)	62.1 dB
	Sibak	AC06725TH	62.4 dB
	Dynatron	DY1206BH-625	63.3 dB
	Dynatron	DC1206BMP	65.1 dB
	Thermalright	SLK800	66.2 dB
	Thermalright	AX-7	66.4 dB	louder

Again, at the lowest fan speed you can expect sound levels to be around the 35 dB mark. If you crave some extra cooling an pump up the fan's RPM to the highest it will go, noise levels will increase to about 62 dB.