Hi,

I'm trying to choose between these 2 heatsinks, both Zalman ones:
http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/products/amdcooling/cnps9700

This one has a huge 110mm fan, so rotates slower and moves more air, so it should be quieter, but for some reason, the dB readings are higher for this one, 19.5 - 35.0 dBA *.

The other one is this, specifically designed for the AM2 system:
http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/products/amdcooling/cnps9500-am2

The fans here are smaller 92mm fans so they should produce more noise, but the dB readings are lower here and I don't understand why: 18.0 - 27.5 dBA *

My third choice would be to avoid this whole conundrum and choose this Thermalright instead, would that be a better choice?
http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/products/amdcooling/tr-ultra

Please help

Your timing couldn't be better.

I was just looking into a new cooler for my yet-to-be-bought new comp.

In short, I ran into the conclusion that the Thermalright Ultra 120 would be the better choice for me.

However, it could not be the same for you.

Your choices are actually quite wide, with selections from ALL the different brands out there. I cbb googling right now, but I'm sure you can find them in newegg somewhere.

Contending for the top spot (in terms of cooling):
thermalright Ultra-120
Tuniq Tower

Both have more or less the same design, with the tuniq's design with the fan in the middle of the heatsink. Might be quieter, probably cheaper since it comes bundled with a fan. Information on the net shows that the Tuniq is much more widely accepted, but I can't find definate evidence that the Tuniq outperforms the Thermalright coupled with a good fan.

From there, it gets muddled.
You've got:
Thermaltake Big Typhoon (normal)
Zalman 9700 LED
Scythe Ninja Heatpipe Cooler SCNJ-1100

The thermaltake BT and the Zalman are the favourites in this section. BT a little more so. The Scythe doesn't seem to be a favourite because of how the heatpipes are connected (not covered too well), but it still does the job pretty well.

I chose the thermalright mainly because its on special, and the tuniq isn't too easily available here. All 5 heatsinks mentioned here are pretty much heavyweights in this section, but when push comes to shove, the tuniq and the thermalright comes up on top.

Hope this helps.

Whoops, I realised I didn't really answer your question....

How quiet does your comp need to be? The Zalman is supposed to be a pretty quiet fan already. But the Thermalright gives you absolute control on how quiet your comp will be.

Anyway, here's a good reference list, it isn't very complete tho. You'd find some of the stuff I mentioned in my previous post, but not all.

The Tuniq Tower is the best IMO but look at the Freezer 64 Pro if you wanna lug the PC along to LAN parties and the like, coz I've heard the Tuniq Tower is quite heavy and may fall off, taking other components with it. And I think it's quieter, not to mention much cheaper too.

scythe

thanks for the replies, guys.

the reason I'm looking is because I'm trying to replace the scythe ninja that I originally bought. That heatsink has heatpipes on both corners, so the heatpipes are pushing against a few capacitors on my motherboard. The capacitors are quite close to the cpu bracket. I didn't want to force the ninja in there, because once the heatpipes get hot, I'm sure it isnt' safe for them to be touching the capacitors.

On the page that you gave me as a reference (http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=2018&page=5), how come the dB readings are so high? even for the zalman which is very quite from my own personal experience. Did the measure it from a very close distance or something?

I would take the db readings with a pinch of salt.

Anyways, how they measured it probably differed to how the other companies measure theirs. Given that they're 3rd party, its quite obvious that they'll come up with some higher numbers.

Besides, I got this inkling that the other companies deduct background noise form their db readings. Either way, that site has their methodology up somewhere as well. I'd just compare the db readings, it should at least tell you which are quieter.

p.s. never compare temps/noise readings from different sites. Sometimes even from different reviews on the same site. Check their methodology thoroughly if you want to compare temps/noise.