Wasn't it possible to remove the fan from the heatsink, to have a better look at the fins? I missed that on the second page of the review.

Besides that: another excellent review.

Greetings,

The fan is semi-transparent, the fins are pretty thick so they must be causing turbulence and noise -- and the fins could be "ringing". The fan is open framed and the heat sink seems to be fairly highly restrictive -- so a fair bit of air could be "escaping' out the sides and not flowing through the fins very effectively.

Isn't the 45 degree angle supposed to cool the VRM? The lack of VRM cooling is one of the main problems with Tower heat sinks.

Nice review Devon, but Mike, your postscript really takes the review to the next level. With the postscript you:

1) emphasize the independence of your site,
2) remind readers of your connections and
3) question what's wrong with the industry.

It does make you wonder what goes on in the Gigabyte test lab, though. Clearly in this case they're not using it for making better products or for quantifying the quality of their current products. How can a consumer make an informed decision about these products without sites like SPCR?

there is another, more likely explanation: marketing dept got hold of the dBA figures and "massaged" them down to a more marketable 23dBA.

Gigabyte has two of the new leaning "120mm" HSFs. They chose to send the cheapie lower-performing unit to SPCR. Here is a review of the other unit.