Is 21db pretty close to silent?

[RockGuitarDude]

I run my volcano 7+ on low and want something a little more quiet. Is the thermaltake silent 21db fan going to be a lot quieter?

 

[calam63]

just run a 5v panaflo l1a

 

[alexXx]

you wont hear 21db, especially if the case wall is inbetween you and the fan.

 

[Hyperlite]

i was watching the Screen Savers today..they said that average room level is about 40dbs, so yeah, you won't be hearing anything.

 

[jinu117]

Not really. Even so called 12v panaflo L1A's makes too much noise for my bedroom comp. I run it around 7-8v which i call quiet. Not even silent.
I consider quiet computer to be something I can't hear at all in middle of night about 6 ft away. Anything below that becomes marginal for over clocking.

PS) If you want something quiet get Zalman CPNS-7000alcu.

 

[mobiusman]

I wouldn't trust any manufacturer DB ratings. The problem is, they don't tell you from how far away they took the sound measurement.
I agree that the Zalman 7000 ALCU is the best heat sink for quiet use.
-Scott

 

[wkwong]

techincally an anechoic room. (pads all around the room to absorb noise). still has a rating of 20dB. but yea, like mobiusman says, don't always trust manufacturers. especially thermaltake. i was looking at the silentcat9 and it said 21db while giving 50-60cfm. i was like wow! plugged it in and it sounded like it was at least 40db. POS, lol.

 

[SuperPickle]

Originally posted by: alexXx
you wont hear 21db, especially if the case wall is inbetween you and the fan.

False. When my fans are on quiet-running mode, the L1A that I've put in my PSU is clearly heard spinning up (thermo controlled) and while in at full speed is the loudest thing in my case.

That said, the mightly Panaflo is the preferred weapon of most cooling:noise freaks - silent to most people except those that claim to hear mouse farts.

 

[SilentZero]

21db is quiet compared to my machine. Between the two 120mm antec fans and the thermaltake venus 12, its a vaccum cleaner when the fan speeds are turned up.

 

[Cerb]

Originally posted by: mobiusman
I wouldn't trust any manufacturer DB ratings. The problem is, they don't tell you from how far away they took the sound measurement.
I agree that the Zalman 7000 ALCU is the best heat sink for quiet use.
-Scott

Actually, Panasonic does . However, being mounted to a heatsink or case causes vibration noise. They are much quieter in free air or with isolators.

 

[L00PY]

Originally posted by: wkwong
techincally an anechoic room. (pads all around the room to absorb noise). still has a rating of 20dB.

Not true. All an anechoic room does is simulate a free field -- there is no dB(A) rating associated with specs for an anechoic room.

As for distances for sound, 99.9% of them will be at 1 meter given that manufacturers conform to ISO specs (in particular ISO 7779 and ISO 9296).

Thermaltake is a reseller of other people's products and appears to routinely mix up specs. Two "mistakes" that come to mind was their intial labeling of their 6025 fan as 31 CFM (when it is really 21 CFM) and their listing of FBL L1A sound levels when rebadging a FBL M1A fan in their Silent Boost.

 

[sup3rcarrx7]

Just stick with a Panaflo fan. Those things are awesome. I've got 2 running them in my system. (front and rear)

 

[CraigRT]

Originally posted by: jinu117
Not really. Even so called 12v panaflo L1A's makes too much noise for my bedroom comp. I run it around 7-8v which i call quiet. Not even silent.
I consider quiet computer to be something I can't hear at all in middle of night about 6 ft away. Anything below that becomes marginal for over clocking.

PS) If you want something quiet get Zalman CPNS-7000alcu.

you can't get that quiet.. you will still be hearing hard drives and things without question, but that WOULD be sweet

 

[Operandi]

ditch the piece of crap thermaltake and get either the Zalman as other have suggested or an Alpha or thermalright with a panaflow or similar fan.

 

[Sonic587]

Yes. Never trust thermaltake's specs. They often lie when it comes to db ratings. I think they may only have one or 2 heatsinks that are ACTUALLY quiet...The rest are vaccums.

 

[lazybum131]

Originally posted by: CraigRT
you can't get that quiet.. you will still be hearing hard drives and things without question, but that WOULD be sweet

You need to get a quieter hard drive then! With my Samsung P80 Spinpoint inside my case lying on foam, the Panaflo 80mm L1A CPU fan at ~11 volts (hooked up to a Zalman fanmate slighty lowered) sounds louder. With the case closed, you can't hear the hard drive seeking, the only way to tell is by looking at the HDD light on the front of the case.

 

[mechBgon]

Personally, I can't hear my Seagate 7200.7 seeking unless I open the case, get down on my hands and knees, and put my ear within six inches of it. During Defrag. But the performance is low. I'll take my Cheetah X15-36LP or Cheetah 15k.3, seeks and all And if I were enough of a silent-system freak to do it, I could park Mr. Cheetah on the far end of a 10-meter external SCSI cable in a different room, now THAT would be quiet As it is, the X15-36LP idles very quietly, lower than the fan on my Radeon 7500. And the system will only be as quiet as its loudest component.

As for the question Is 21db pretty close to silent?, it definitely depends on whom you ask, as the responses to this thread demonstrate.

 

[EngenZerO]

21db is pretty quiet.

 

[Machupo]

back in the day, i had a 80mm swiftech heatsink on a tbird w/ an 80mm "silent" fan from pcpowerandcooling.com -- i had no case and my head was about 4 feet away from it when i slept... nothing... no noise whatsoever...

it also helped that the computer was net booted off an executive node, though, so no hdd... and i replaced the fan in the psu with the same silencer fan from the above website.

heck, even when i held the fan directly to my ear (carefully, hah!) i could barely hear it...

 

[WobbleWobble]

SilentBoost is not 21dBa like advertised. If you're lucky and get the version with a Panaflo, you'll get the "M' which is 28dBA and spins at 2450RPM. If you're not lucky you'll get the non-Panaflo version which is louder. The non-Panaflo version has a -01 suffix to the model number.

The Panaflo L1A is rated 21dBa and their rating would hold true if they did use the L1A, but they don't and is misleading.

And yes, you can hear 21dBa. Only when I undervolt my Panaflo L1A do I consider it quiet

I ditched my SilentBoost because thought it was too loud. I bought a Zalman CNPS-7000A and it's noticably quieter while also being a better cooler.

 

[Granorense]

Originally posted by: WobbleWobble
SilentBoost is not 21dBa like advertised. If you're lucky and get the version with a Panaflo, you'll get the "M' which is 28dBA and spins at 2450RPM. If you're not lucky you'll get the non-Panaflo version which is louder. The non-Panaflo version has a -01 suffix to the model number.

The Panaflo L1A is rated 21dBa and their rating would hold true if they did use the L1A, but they don't and is misleading.

And yes, you can hear 21dBa. Only when I undervolt my Panaflo L1A do I consider it quiet .

I agree 100% with you. I still have the heat sink but with a real panaflo L1A which I didn't even have to undervolt, quiet enough for me.

 

[RockGuitarDude]

I wound up with a Zalman 7000-AlCu... even on high its rediculously quiet. Now I only have to make my video card and powersupply quiet. I'm probably gonna get creative on these, especially the videocard

 

[Mday]

how close to the thing are you that's emitting something at 21dB? anything further than a meter will mean it's very quiet.

 

[0roo0roo]

21db at what distancenon standard heh yea htose ratings are bull. once you mount it and the air has to go past those grates... it just gets noisy.

 

[Frozen7]

but still moving air creates some noise; so no matter how silent your fans/cpu cooler/etc. is you're going to hear some noise.