Kaby Lake 7700K 5GHz AIO Cooler Mega Test

Noise Testing

Manufacturers will always give a dB(A) level for their systems or fans.  The problem is, that although protocols exist that attempt to standardise the how this figure is obtained, there’s still a degree of subjectivity in it with regards to one manufacturer vs another.  For a long time we’ve been looking for a more objective way to measure and record the noise of cooling systems.  As much as we’d like them we simply we simply don’t have the facilities to undertake fully scientific testing in an acoustically silent room.  We have though come up with a solution that will enable us to gather noise measurements so that the various systems can be related to each other. It’s inevitable that our readings will differ wildly from the manufacturers, however, and perhaps more importantly, our measurement will have been gathered in exactly the same way, and as such are directly comparable to each other.  The figures below were obtained using our meter, and we from the inside of the case at the level of the GPU.  All other case fans were turned off, and the GPU fan was not spinning.