The unknown fan on the Model 5E is only 15mm in height and doesn't spin wildly fast so noise is not much of an issues with this heatsink. That is not to say that the cooler is completely silent however, chances are that you just won't hear it above the power supply or hard drives. To hear for yourself first hand, we have included an MP3 recording about ten seconds long of the heatsink in operation. To listen to this heatsink, just clip on the headphones!

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	Thermal Integration	TI-S86-25	21.4	38.3	42.9		52.8	64.4	grey	1	loud	med
3	Vantec	CCK-6027D	27.4	45.4	49.6		64.9	73.4	none	1	med	med
4	OCZ	Dominator	26.5	37.7	50.9		52.4	74.2	none	1	loud	med
5	Swiftech	MCX370-0A	22.3	42.0	46.1		60.3	75.6	none	1	med	hard
6	Akasa	Silver Mountain	26.6	46.2	51.5		65.0	76.1	none	1	loud	med
7	Vantec	CCK-6035D-Retail	26.5	44.2	52.8		63.2	77.9	none	1	loud	med
8	Spire	5E055B1H3R	24.5	50.8	54.5		79.8	82.1	none	1	low	med
9	Thermaltake	Volcano 6cu+	26.5	40.3	55.3		58.6	84.4	carbon	1	loud	med
10	Thermalright	CB-6L	24.6	50.3	57.7		73.8	92.7	white pad	1	low	med
11	Fortis	A92	26.7	45.6	65.8		67.8	97.8	none	1	loud	stiff
				50W	50W		100W	100W

Initial results are pegging the Model 5E from Spire in the OEM class of heatsinks. At the very least, the cooler is substantially smaller than the rest of the competition if not quieter as well. One thing is for sure however, the Model 5E is really not designed to handle the large interface die. The temperatures during those tests are just absymal.