Don't freak out cause of that high noise rating you won't ever reach it in most systems cause the cooling of the ACF7pro is so good it never runs at full load. At least thats true in my system (using it with a modest OCed 2.4 E6300).
I would second that opinion based on my own experience with the ACF7pro. When it runs at full speed you hear it. Fortunately, I've only heard it run at full speed when I've disabled the CPU fan speed control in the BIOS.
Actually, with the default DS3 BIOS fan speed settings, the fan doesn't run at all.
I changed the BIOS fan control method setting from "Auto" (whatever that means) to "Intel QST" which ensures the fan never runs slower than 800 RPM. That is the speed I always see it running at and at 800 RPM I do not hear it.
(The noise from my case is actually dominated by my 1600 RPM case fans. I definitely need a way to slow those down a bit ... they seemed like such a good idea at the time I bought them.
)
FWIW, the ACF7pro was running around $25 US when I bought it. Currently newegg sells it for around $65 shipped. Personally, I think that is crazy. I don't know why the price was suddenly more than doubled. :?
-john, the ostensibly clueless redundant legacy-in-transition dinosaur
Im getting it from xoxide.com for $25.
Im also getting the DS3, do I have to change the fan settings to the Intel QST, or is the automatic one OK?
thnx