X-bit labs

New Shining CPU Cooler: Gigabyte G-Power II Pro Review (page 9)

Category: Coolers

by Sergey Lepilov

[ 01/28/2008 | 02:24 PM ]

Acoustic Performance

Before we start talking about the noise levels of our today’s testing participants, I have to say that thanks to Zalman ZM-MFC2 control and monitoring panel (which we will discuss separately in one of our upcoming articles) we managed to reduce the ambient system noise from 34dBA to 33.4dBA. I would also like to add that we have also replaced two case fans with nine-blade Scythe Minebea fans rotating at ~1140RPM. To ensure that they run a little quieter we hung them up using rubber pins from Noctua fans, so that they did not touch on the system case panel. Besides, Zalman ZM-MFC2 allowed us to reduce their rotation speed to ~960RPM.

Here are the results:

Well, this answers the question “why Gigabyte G-Power II Pro wasn’t tested at 700RPM”. The thing is that our equipment hardly detected its noise level at ~1020RPM. So we can say that at 5V and ~700RPM the new cooler is almost noiseless. At maximum fan rotation speed that was ~1680RPM instead of the claimed 1500RPM, this cooling solution stands out noticeably against the noise generated by the rest of the system case, however, I still cannot say it was too noisy. It is quite acceptable from my subjective standpoint.