This isn't the loudest heatsink on the planet, but its not absolutely quiet either. Pretty standard noise levels leave it hanging somewhere in the balance of just around the level of noise your average power supply will create. Of course you can hear how noisy this heatsink is by clicking on the little headphones and downloading the MP3 file of the DC1207BMW in operation.

FrostyTech Acoustic Sampling Chamber
Standard Waveform view of a 10 second recording. Click on the headphones to listen to an MP3 recording of this heatsink in operation.

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. These results may be higher than the manufacturer's listed specs, but then again these are real world measurements.

FrostyTech Sound Level Results
-	Manufacturer	Model	Noise Level	Scale
	Zalman	CNPS6500-AlCu	47.4/28.9 dB	quiet
	Intel	Socket 478	42.5 dB
	Cho-Liang	CL-CB0094-1A	49.8 dB
	Cho-Liang	CL-CB00881	50.2 dB
	Dynatron	DC1207BMW	53.0 dB
	Dynatron	DC1206BMV	55.1 dB
	AVC	117140	56.1 dB
	NengTyi	NW6700	58.0 dB
	Coolermaster	IHC-H71	64.4 dB	louder

The stock Intel heatsink is pretty damn quiet. This a big reason why many of us have begun to switch over to Intel and leave AMD in the dust. AMD may have better gaming characteristics, but Intel is much quieter, and less hot. In this case the DC1207BMW is dead center in terms of noise production for a socket 478 Pentium 4 heatsink.