Fan Noise

In order to give a measurement of how loud the fan is, we used an IEC651 Type II sound level meter on the dbA slow setting.

The distance between fan and sound level meter was 10cm. Please note that this is very little, compared to the "standard" measurements, which are made at 1m distance. We had to do this, to get proper readings with our sound level meter, because we obviously can't spend thousands of dollars on audio measuring equipment.

All tested fans were connected to an external 12V lab PSU. 12V is the maximum rated fan speed. Some motherboards/video cards use slower fan speeds and slowly ramp them up with temperatures. This is also the reason, why the X800 series seems to have such a "loud" fan. During normal usage its fan is usually running at 33% to 66%. That is why we also tested the video card fans at 50% (6 V).



If you consider, that the cooling performance of the ATI Silencer 5 is a bit better than the X850 Pro stock cooler, these numbers are really impressive. The difference between stock and ATI Silencer is about 10 dbA. With the logarithmic dbA scale this comes down to half the perceived sound level of the X850 Pro cooler.

A major problem is the limited availability of the cooler outside Europe. Many users in our forums would love to get an Arctic cooler, but can't find them for sale in their country. We hope Arctic Cooling can resolve these issues in the future.

Value and Conclusion