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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 looped 3dMark tests. Ambient noise in the room is around 20-25dBa. We measure from a distance of around 1 meter from the closed 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
The tri fan cooler helps to keep noise emissions low, under 30 dBa when idle. This rises to around 33 dBa when gaming and 34 dBa when primed in Furmark. A very strong cooling solution, as we would expect.
excellent, been waiting on a review of these for a very long time
Amazon have them also. I ordered one there, great deal and thanks for review.
Lol that power drain for the system is insane. I was drooling, but im glad I dont have it,. my electricity bill would be insane.
haha, total overkill. gotta love tech. Not sure id like the bill for a years worth of gaming on that system though.
Nice idea to work with arctic. I think sapphire did for a while on a range of cards didnt they?
impressive, never heard of the company. their website is great too. hope to see more of their products here
the power drain scares me for that full system. mine consumes less than 200 watts!
@ the cons
SLI cables come with SLI capable motherboards
It does come with a free game (even in the link product)
No mention that it is a triple slot cooler and thus will only fit certain motherboards in
SLI
Mine didnt come with a free game, bought it on amazon. The batman deal is with nvidia on seleected stores.
It is a disgrace these cards dont come with an SLI connector. My MSI motherboard has an SLI connector with it, but its a HARD, inflexible style connector not designed for cards of this size, so it wouldnt work. A high end card like this with a custom cooler should be supplied with a large flexible SLI connector.
If lowest price is the main deciding factor then yes. If performance and engineering of the card then most definitely no.
MSI Lighting 580 (not ridiculously overpriced Extreme Ed.) beats KFA2 580A in every test. And MSI TF3 cooling is well worth the extra few quids in price. It keeps card very cool – below 40C. In stress you can also get few degrees off vs KFA. And most important thing – cooling is a 2 slot solution which means you can easily squeeze 4 of such monsters in one case. It is pretty much impossible with KFA580A – you can do that only with min. 10 PCI slot case using PCI Express x16 risers/extenders (extra cost which nullify the advantage in price – risers are not cheap).
MSI lightning 580 is ok at best, I want this one 🙂
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-133-MS&utm_source=froogle
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