Acoustic Samples: Listen to this Heatsink!

With two fans spinning at around 4500RPM the Sibak AT01515B is noisier than you might initially expect for a heatsink with 50mm fans. The key here is fans, with two motors there is bound to be an increase in noise levels.

To hear for yourself what this heatsink actually sounds like, just click on the headphones and listen to the MP3 recording.

Sound Level Measurements:

Listening to the actual noise a heatsink makes allows you to hear what pure numbers alone cannot get across. To further emphasize FrostyTech's reliance on cold hard facts when evaluating a heatsink, we also take Decibel readings with a sound level meter. The list of heatsinks which have had their noise level measured continues to grow as more are tested.

FrostyTech Sound Level Results
-	Manufacturer	Model	Noise Level	Scale
	Zalman	All Flower HSF	47.4/28.9 dB	quiet
	Noisecontrol	Silverado	50.8 dB
	Thermal Integration	Ti-V77L	53.0 dB
	Tocools	Crown	54.5 dB
	Sibak	AT01515B	55.8 dB
	Dynatron	DC1206BMP	65.1 dB	louder

The Sibak cooler comes in pretty much in the middle of the road, but on the noisier side. While one or two degrees in temperature mean a lot, the human ear has a hard time distinguishing between sounds with less than 3 dB difference. Keep that in mind when you look at the above sound level measurements. The 38mm Delta fan on the Dynatron heatsink is substantially louder than everything else.

Synthetic Temperature Test Results: *Ranked according to 100W small interface die test results.

FrostyTech Synthetic Temperature Test Platform Results
	Mfg.	Model	Ambient Temp.	27mm large copper block	15mm small copper block		27mm large copper block	15mm small copper block	Thermal pad	No. Fans	Fan Noise	Clip force
				50W	50W		100W	100W
1	Thermal Integration	TI-V77L	26.5	39.1	44.4		57.5	63.6	grey	1	med	med
2	Swiftech	MCXC370	21.4	38.3	43.4		53.5	65.7	none	1	med	med
3	Tocools	Crown	23.2	38.8	53.2		47.9	70.2	none	1	loud	stiff
4	OCZ	Gladiator	21.4	33.3	47.3		50.6	70.3	none	1	very loud	med
5	Vantec	CCK-6027D	27.4	45.4	49.6		64.9	73.4	none	1	med	med
6	Swiftech	MCX370	22.3	42.0	46.1		60.3	75.6	none	1	med	hard
7	Zalman	CNPS6000-Cu	24.8	46.4	53.8		65.6	78.2	none	1	very low	easy
8	AVC	112AM1	24.8	46.6	52.9		70.1	79.6	none	1	low	stiff
9	Thermaltake	Volcano 6cu+	26.5	40.3	55.3		58.6	84.4	carbon	1	loud	med
10	Spire	5T060B1H3R	26.7	42.7	57.5		64.6	85.1	none	1	low	med
11	Zalman	CNPS6000AlCu	24.9	48.3	56.3		72.2	86.0	none	1	low	med
12	Thermalright	CB-6L	24.6	50.3	57.7		73.8	92.7	white pad	1	low	med
13	Sibak	AT01515B	23.0	45.1	64.6		60.1	95.2	none	2	med	stiff
				50W	50W		100W	100W

Ouch! Believe it or not there is one good number for the Sibak AT01515B and that is 60.1 degrees on the 100Watt test with the large interface die. Every other test is really pretty poor, or just not worth the bother.

The Sibak is really limited in terms of what processors you can realistically use with it, and given the somewhat noisy characteristics you might be well advised to just pass it up and try something with a little more kick.

Rise Above Ambient Temp. (c)
	Mfg.	Model	27mm large copper block	15mm small copper block		27mm large copper block	15mm small copper block
			50W	50W		100W	100W
1	Thermal Integration	TI-V77L	12.6	17.9		31.0	37.1
2	Swiftech	MCXC370	16.9	22.0		32.1	44.3
3	Vantec	CCK-6027D	18.0	22.2		37.5	46.0
4	Tocools	Crown	15.6	30.0		24.7	47.0
5	OCZ	Gladiator	12.0	26.0		29.2	49.0
6	Swiftech	MCX370	19.7	23.8		38.0	53.3
7	Zalman	CNPS6000-Cu	21.6	29.0		40.8	53.4
8	AVC	112AM1	21.8	28.1		45.3	54.8
9	Thermaltake	Volcano 6cu+	13.8	28.8		32.1	57.9
10	Spire	5T060B1H3R	16.0	30.8		37.9	58.4
11	Zalman	CNPS6000AlCu	23.4	31.4		47.3	61.1
12	Thermalright	CB-6L	25.7	33.1		49.2	68.1
13	Sibak	AT01515B	22.1	41.6		37.1	72.2
			50W	50W		100W	100W

Well the final results, which are the rise above ambient temperature results point to just one area of usefulness for the Sibak AT01515B. Coupled with the large interface die and a 100W heat load it seems to produce relatively good OEM results. Bear in mind that when I say "relative" I mean against its not that great ranking.

The small interface die doesn't seem to be able to spread the heat quickly enough to really take advantage of the design of the Sibak AT01515B and consequently the temperatures here are rather high.

Given what we heard, and what we see thermally you are best served by looking to one of Sibak's other heatsinks for good cooling. The twinhead design is cool to look at, but eye candy doesn't always work as well as it really ought to.