Silent CPU coolers

Top 5 Silent CPU coolers

It is no longer necessary for a fast PC to be a very loud machine. CPU fans are traditionally one of the main causes of a noisy computer, but manufacturers have been trying to silence their products. If you are looking for a CPU cooler that will not be a nuisance to your ears, we have compiled a small list of five coolers worth considering.

We have done a test of a large number of CPU coolers in Hardware.Info Magazine no.1 2006, in which we not only looked at the capacity of the coolers, but also took the noise levels in to account. We measure the noise level at 15cm in an enclosed case, same as it would be in a real life situation. Our figures might look a bit on the high side because of the wy me measured, as most manufacturers measure at a distance of 1 meter. We do believe that measuring at sych a close distance will provide a better insight in how noisy the fan actually is, in stead of just looking at the specifications on the box of the product. Our results should be interpreted in a different way; if a cooler is under 50dB in our test this can be called quiet, if the level drops to under 40dB the cooler can be considered as silent. 60dB will be quite noisy, and you should consider if you could live with this, above 70dB is like the sound of a small plane and therefore not to be advised to use. When a fan is supplied with a device to change the rotating speed we have tested both the lowest and the highest setting of the fan, but as there are notherboards that are able to dynamically change the rotating speed according to CPU load some fans might not be as loud in every day use as we have tested.  

Number 1: Asetek Vapochill Micro Extreme Performance

Most users will recognise Asustek because of their Vapochill phase change cooling systems. We have used this system in our FX-60 overclocking test in the Hardware.Info magazine, but Asustek must realise that not all users like to attach a fridsge-freezer to their PC case. They have released a normal sized CPU cooler that has some aspects of the phase change principle incorperated in it, the Vapochill Micro. The heatsink has a special fluid inside, that will take up the heat produced by the CPU,  evaporize and move to the top of the heatsink. The fan on the heatsink will cool down the fluid and it will move back to the bottom again where the process repeats itself. The Vapochill Micro is available for socket 775 as well as socket 754 and 939, but these are different models; check when you wish to purchase one of these that you buy the model for the correct socket. We found the performance of the Vapochill Micro to be pretty good, and when the fan is set to the lowerst rotating speed this cooler only produces 37dB, which makes this the quietest fan we have tested. 

Number 2: ASUS X-Mars

As most of you know ASUS has started to make CPU coolers as well. Their X-Mars model is only suitable for AMD processors, but is the runner up in our noise test. The downside is the actual cooling performance, which is not very good. For a budget processor used in a system that has to be silent this cooler would make a very good choice.