Retail CPU Fan Sound Rating?

cadmium · Post by **cadmium** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 8:02 am

Most reviews of cpu fan/heatsinks includes sound ratings, however I've yet to see one that compares it to the stock fan that comes with a retail cooler. How am I supposed to decide if I want to invest in a cooler, if I have no idea how much quieter it's going to be?

Does anyone know the sound rating of the retail fan that comes with the E8500?

cadmium · Post by **cadmium** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 11:43 am

Actually I dug some more and found one review of the stock Core 2 Duo processor, turns out it one of the quietest coolers out there (not necessarily the most effective, but quiet).

http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.c ... cleID=2132

36.7 db

angelkiller · Post by **angelkiller** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 1:15 pm

First, the stock heatsink for 45nm C2Ds is much smaller. See here. Second, the stock C2D heatsink is not quiet. I don't care what kind of DBa they measured. That stock heatsink is average at best. And I mean average as in "you'll definitely notice it, but it won't be irritating." (However it will be irritating if you are trying to make a quiet PC) So I don't have any data to show you, but I can tell you that if you really want a quiet PC, you'll ditch the stock heatsink.

But there is an alternative route. Why don't you get the stock heatsink and try it out before you get a new heatsink. That way you can decide for yourself if the stock one is noisy or not.

I think you bring up a good point though. It would be great if SPCR reviewed the various stock heatsinks out there. And we don't need a really comprehensive review, just a noise measurements at 5v and at full speed.

xan_user · Post by **xan_user** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 3:23 pm

Manufactures claims for noise statistics are lies, and should never be trusted.

oddlycalm · Post by **oddlycalm** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 1:46 pm

For a low wattage chip like the E8500 you can come up with a sink/fan that is a lot quieter. The other thing you can accomplish is to leave Intel's funky push pin mounting behind. An efficient heatsink with a low speed Nexus fan should keep an E8500 cool and be silent outside the case.

oc

dcwp · Post by **dcwp** » Thu Apr 02, 2009 6:30 am

Hello there,

I'm new around here and was just doing some lurking to get ideas on my own system. I've also got a C2D with stock cooler so I'd like to offer my 2 cents.

It does make a very noticeable high hum, but it is fairly consistent and innocuous if there is other noise.

But, I have made the stock cooler virtually silent (to my untrained ear) simply by turning it down with SpeedFan. When the fan speed gets down to 70-75%, it is very soft and hardly noticeable. At 50% it is silent-enough for me to consider it good.

I hope this helps!

jessekopelman · Post by **jessekopelman** » Thu Apr 02, 2009 11:32 am

dcwp wrote: But, I have made the stock cooler virtually silent (to my untrained ear) simply by turning it down with SpeedFan. When the fan speed gets down to 70-75%, it is very soft and hardly noticeable. At 50% it is silent-enough for me to consider it good.

Agreed. There is a general consensus that if you can get the stock fan down to 50% it is inaudible. However, whether you can actually afford so little cooling depends a lot on your actual system configuration and ambient conditions. A great many people won't be able to get the stock cooler down to 50% . . . Whether it is worth trying this route before buying an aftermarket cooler that you know will be silent depends on an individual assessment of how much grief it would be to have to do a cooler swap vs. price sensitivity. Usually it is a no-brainer one way or the other . . .