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TESTING
System Configuration:
Measurement and Analysis Tools
System temperatures and noise levels were recorded with SpeedFan and GPU-Z
at idle and on load using CPUBurn (K7 setting) and FurMark, an OpenGL
benchmarking and stability testing utility.
Baseline Noise
The Cosmos II shipped with four fans in total, a 140 mm model at the back, a 200 mm LED variant at the front, and two 120 mm units in the bottom compartment blowing over the hard drive cages near the case floor. The case also has a dedicated 3-speed fan controller for up to 8 fans broken into 4 different groups. The front 200 mm fan had an odd quirk when powered via the controller, producing a noticeable thumping sound, particularly noticeable at low and medium speed where there was less turbulence to drown it out. When powered through normal means, it sounded fairly smooth and benign, similar to the other stock fans. Oddly enough, the fan had a similar measured noise level regardless of how we powered it, so we left it connected to the controller.
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Stock Fan Noise Level
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Fan
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SPL @1m (dBA)
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Low
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Med
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High
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Front 20cm
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14
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16
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24
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Rear 14cm
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13~14
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16
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20~21
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Top (rear) 12cm*
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12~13
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16
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23
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Side (front) 12cm
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15
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23~24
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30
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Side (center) 12cm
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15
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23
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29~30
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Combined
(front, rear, top)
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14~15
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20
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29~30
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Measuring mic positioned 1m at diagonal angle left/front
of case.
*swapped from side
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The side fans blowing over the drive cages on the case floor were the loudest, measuring 15 dBA@1m on low speed, up to 29~30 dBA@1m on high speed. The mounting system is likely partially responsible as the plastic tabs holding the fans allows them to rattle somewhat. As these fans were unneeded for our testing configuration, we removed both of them, using one of them as an exhaust on the case ceiling. The front, rear, and top fans produced a similar amount of noise to one another, and combined, generated approximately the same amount as a single side fan.
At medium speed, the Cosmos II's rear, top, and front fans produced a noise level of 20 dBA@1m.
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