Battle of the CPU Coolers
24. Results - Noise
Review Pages
2. Akasa AK-965
3. Akasa AK-925 Revo
4. Asus Silent Knight II
5. Asus Triton 75
6. GlacialTech Igloo 5160
7. Noctua NH-U12F
8. OCZ Vendetta
9. Scythe Andy Samurai Master
10. Scythe Kama Cross
11. Scythe Infinity (Mugen)
12. Scythe Ninja Mini
13. SunbeamTech.com Silent Whisper
14. Titan Amanda Tec
15. Titan TTC-NK34TZ
16. Titan Vanessa L-Type
17. Tuniq Tower 120
18. Zalman CNPS8700NT
19. Zalman CNPS9700LED
20. Zaward VIVO
21. Test methodology
22. Results - Idle
23. Results - Load
24. Results - Noise
25. Summary
The produced noise of each CPU cooler is different, according to the rotation speed of the installed fan and the build material. The Noise tests, proved to be rather difficult since you can't just post a number and be sure that it's accurate. There are many factors that can increase/lower the produced noise of a CPU cooler, but anyway all displayed models were tested in exactly the same conditions. Keeping the rotation speeds at full throttle gives us the best possible performance. However it also increases noise. The Titan Amanda proved to be a good solution, due to the fact that it automatically adjusts its rotation speed, therefore we cannot have a direct control over it. The GlacialTech Igloo 5610 Silent proved to be much silent as much as Intel Stock and Amanda Tech. The Asus Triton 75 is a passive cooled solution, and the used Noctua NF-S12 did produced very low noise. The Zaward Vivo also performed good and several other coolers were very close. What didn't make us very happy was the Zalman CNPS9700LED because it was too noisy at full speed..
Lowering the rotation speed down to a minimum does reduce the produced noise. This time, the Tuniq Tower 120 and the Zalman CNPS9700LED share the second place, while many other coolers follow in the third place.