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Recently we have changed our method of measuring noise levels. For most reviews we have built a system inside a Lian Li chassis with no case fans and have used a fanless cooler on our CPU. We are using a heatpipe based passive power supply and an Intel SSD to keep noise levels to a minimum. The motherboard is passively cooled and we use a Sapphire HD5670 Ultimate Edition graphics card which is also passively cooled. Ambient noise in the room is kept as low as possible. We measure from a distance of around 1 meter from the chassis and 4 foot from the ground to mirror a real world situation.
Why do this? Well this means we can eliminate secondary noise pollution in the test room and concentrate on only the components we are testing. It also brings us slightly closer to industry standards, such as DIN 45635.
We normally use air conditioning which generates noise levels around 21dBa. We disabled air conditioning to lower ambient noise to 16.2dBa.
We use a SkyTronic DSL 2 Digital Sound Level Meter (6-130dBa) from a distance of 1 meter.
KitGuru noise guide
10dBA – Normal Breathing/Rustling Leaves
20-25dBA – Whisper
30dBA – High Quality Computer fan
40dBA – A Bubbling Brook, or a Refridgerator
50dBA – Normal Conversation
60dBA – Laughter
70dBA – Vacuum Cleaner or Hairdryer
80dBA – City Traffic or a Garbage Disposal
90dBA – Motorcycle or Lawnmower
100dBA – MP3 player at maximum output
110dBA – Orchestra
120dBA – Front row rock concert/Jet Engine
130dBA – Threshold of Pain
140dBA – Military Jet takeoff/Gunshot (close range)
160dBA – Instant Perforation of eardrum
When under load the Corsair H70 produces around 47.3 dBa of noise, just slightly less than the Coolit Vantage. While these figures sound high, they are perfectly fine for a performance system. Most of the time they idle much lower but this is the all important ‘worst case scenario' figure.
fuck, what a review Zardon. great testing. and very good performance from all three coolers ! I will never be able to afford a CPU like that.
Awesome ! Still not able to knock the NH D14 off the top spot I see !
Very very good test idea, I love how you throw things on their head Zardon – what performance out of the noctua ! H70 did better than I thought
Christ, the test to end all tests. liked the section on air flow, that was very informative and I never thought about it like that either.
YEAH !!!! I have been waiting for this one, and I have to say, hand on heart, the results played out EXACTLY as I imagined they would. Great cooler from corsair and the price is a little steep, but still quite good.
Yeah baby. I need to get this cooler. the noctua NH D14 is still awesome, but its far too big for my case. I cant deal with that, especially the strain on the mobo long term, bound to cause damage and strained parts.
Absoultely brilliant review Kitguru, this is just what I wanted to see. not a clear win really for noctua, due to size.
Well its a clear win if you are only looking at performance figures !
Noctua NH D14 is incredible, but I agree, its ridiculously sized for most people.
Really thought this review was one of de best I have seen in a longe time. thanks you.
Incredible results for the Noctua NH D14 – had to laugh at the picture of it with 3 fans, its basically a chassis, inside a chassis!
Very good product from corsair again – this is a much better deal IMO than NH D14, its far too big to be sensible for most people. You get limited with memory selection too.
So – Noctua is £60, Corsair is £85 and Coolit is £105.
The cheapest performs the best, the middle performs middle best and the most expensive is the worst.
Its not quite as black n white as that, but its interesting.
I love the look of this corsair unit, the coolit one didnt appeal to me, you are paying 30 quid for the screen. I dont need a screen, I also dont need a heatsink the size of a small county in england.
Great review, was contemplating which one to get, now I know. but its a secret :p
Noctua have made such a damn good cooler, every site loves it. some sites dont test it against H70 so its good to see this. Very impressed with corsair unit however, the head is so small.
I might be alone in my thinking, but the noctua cooler scares me to look at. fitting it and putting such a strain on my 200 quid motherboard? the corsair seems best to me, but I like the noctua options and screen quality.
Very good testing, it puts things into a ‘im a rich bastard and have loads of money to spend, and I will also overclock the balls of my processor’ category. most of us will have a core i5 or AMD cpu and these will ALL run much cooler.
great review.
All of these are very expensive. even the noctua, although you are paying for the metal ! coolit is my favourite, Im probably in the minority. I dont need these insane overclocks, so I would say with a reasonable OC and a mid range cpu it would be awesome.
Noctua is just impossible to beat, but it seems such a brute force solution to me, make the biggest heatsink you can build and slap multiple fans on it.
Guess it works though !
Great review, found it on google, very helpful for my purchase. Corsair here I come !
This is a fantastic review Kitguru, bookmarked for another read tomorrow after work.
Nice review!! thumbs up – all 4 of them 😀
great idea for the review – all of the coolers seem really capable !
Amazed how good the corsair and noctua really are 🙂
Would there by any way to test this vs the Coolit Eco 240. This is a great review and I have been reading alot of them for the H70, Coolit Vantage, and the Eco 240 but have not seen this against the Eco 240 yet. I also have been in talks with Coolit about getting a custom Vantage 240 but don’t know if the price is worth the performance. Any Help or Guidance will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Another great review mate, I might consider the H70 when i decide to upgrade my system… 🙂
Now that’s what I’m talking about! So sick of these sites using the True120 for all their top air tests when the D14 is the ultimate air cooling…I didn’t even know 3 fans was possible I’ll have to give it a shot.
Hello just wondering how the hell you mount a H70 in a Antec p 193 case, I can hardly fit the H50 in it due to the big boy 200 mm side panal fan.
I moved the fan and radiator to the front of the case intake threw the front, Though I do not think I could fit a huge h70 that way either.
Yeah I have a P193 and I fitted one in mine, but I ditched the standard massive fan side door and ordered one without it.
I think comparing the H70 vs the Coolit Vantage could be reconsidered. The H70 comes with two 120mm fans (push-pull setup) while the Coolit Vantage comes with only one 120mm fan. The thing is the Coolit Vantage also has the capability of adding an additional 120mm fan for a similar push-pull setup. I’ve personally used the H70 and then converted to the Coolit Vanatge (with the extra fan added). Happy to say I achieved a decrease in temps by 3 degrees on an overclocked 965BE at 4.22ghz.
IMO get the Coolit, buy the additional fan and have the bonus of the digital display.
How much better is this cooler versus the H50?? Is it really much more powerful or is it comparable to the H50 plus another fan…? I am asking because a vendor I am thinking of buying from only carries either the H50 or the VANTAGE! I am wondering if it worth the trouble for me to buy after market and install it or just screw it and go with the H50 or Vantage.. 😀 What do you say guys…? Or just go with the Noctua — right? …jeje