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Recently we have changed our method of measuring noise levels. 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 also passively cooled. This gives us a build with completely passive cooling and it means we can measure noise of just the graphics card inside the system when we run Furmark. Ambient noise in the room is around 20dBa. We measure with a SkyTronic DSL 2 Digital Sound Level Meter (6-130dBa) 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 video card. It also brings us slightly closer to industry standards, such as DIN 45635.
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
This is just as impressive as the temperature improvements we recorded on the last page of testing. Noise has dropped from over 40db to 33db under full Furmark load. This is not only significant, its noticeable in real world circumstances.
I have been trying to source one of these for weeks. cant find it anywhere 🙁
Great cooler ! noctua NH D14 for graphics cards comment had me laughing. I think Zardon has shares in noctua :p Looks great, but very expensive.
fuck me, what a cooler. speechless.
65 bucks? ouch x10. I want one though. any dealers actually sell these? even the arctic cooling site isnt selling them, what a mess 🙁
That is a really good design, some good shots of the copper block too. I never use those preapplied pastes either, good to see im not alone.
That cooler looks very well engineered. the underside is a top job, color me impressed.
Availability is non existant. find out if they are going to sell these in europe would you ?
Arctic Cooling make great coolers, they just need to work on their distribution in certain countries.
I have one for my GTX280…
very very nice cooler with the exception of the adhesives for RAM… they are not good :-/
I had to remount them several times and they are still bit loose…
They say an hour to bed in for the adhesive, can’t say I noticed any issues but I think I read a few people said the same thing as you Jordan. Perhaps they changed the adhesive composition recently.
I do hope for their sake 🙂
It is stupid to have such issue with such a nice cooler… 🙂
I have a Sapphire 5870 card with this cooler for sale if u are in the UK.
if interested in more details let me know at…
[email protected]
Hi, what was the VRM temp during test?
thanks