It's all about Decibels

[DennisMV]

Heatsinks, fans..
Right now in my system I have Dynatron DC1206BM-L/625 Noise:46.5dBA , Fan 6800
The noise is too much for me, I even can't talk on the phone sometimes, so I ordered
Thermaltake Volcano 6CU Noise:31dBA , Fan 4550
It's not here yet, but I am already starting to think about how loud it will be. I am looking for a fan that's about as loud as case fans ... is that possible ?
Would you say Volcano is fairly quiet ? I know it's quiet compared to Dynatron I have, but in absolute values, how loud IS IT ! ? :) I want to be able to just talk on the phone and not reask every other thing.

Oh, also, who would you say makes quieter fans ? Vantec, Delta or Thermaltake ?

thanks,
Denny

[azhari]

Ok, go to this site:

http://shop.store.yahoo.com/sidewindercomputers/tecar.html

Select the fan you currently have and turn the volume on your speakers up until the noise level is comparable to what you actually hear from you computer's fan. Then select the fan that you will be getting, or want, and listen to that recording.

This should give you a "fair" comparison of what you should expect.

[DennisMV]

thanks !

I calibrated my speakers with a sound level meter, using dBA scale and Dynatron measured 69 dBA
Thermaltake measured 63 dBA.

Even with all the measurements I'd say that the loudness is still subjective. I listened to both and while I can hear a little difference, I'm not sure if it is much quieter.... I mean it is, but not to the point that I will be all happy about it [G]
I think I'll have to put them in and see first to really get the feel for them. Maybe inside my case it won't matter as much.

Besides that, though, the website made a terriffic job of putting those fan sounds on it :)
You can hear them before you buy and you can hear just how 'quiet' they really are. Also some of the 'quieter' fans have louder lower frequencies which might not register well on sound-level meters using A scale, but those frequencies still could bug you. Decibels do not always measure loudness, though scale A tries. If you listen to fans #18 and #28, you will hear a difference, even though they both measure 26dbA.

Denny

[azhari]

Yep, I agree that decibels doesn't give you a good idea of the frequency. What I call "the whine factor" is sometimes more important. That's why I like that site.

Another problem is that a lot of the noise ratings that are stated for fans don't tell you what distance they measured it at. That's probably a great source of ambiguity when we want to compare the noise from different fans.

One option you may want to consider, which I've started to look into, is lining the inside of your case with sound absorbing material. I've heard that it doesn't affect cooling significantly, but can cut the noise down quite a bit. If you are interested, then do a search on this board and you'll find plenty of suggestions.

Good luck with your fan selection.

[DennisMV]

thanks again.
I might have to look into that option.
Another option is this one: http://www.overclockers.com/tips457/

Looks risky, but it might be the simplest..
If the new Thermaltake's fans won't cut it, I'll have to look into these options.

Denny