Asus' Big, Bad StarIce Cooler

Noise Emission

Total Weight

At top speed, thermal resistance is lower for the Asus cooler than for Intel's boxed version. That said, it comes with an excruciatingly high noise level of 62.8 dB(A), which makes use over long periods of time out of the question. Although the fan is much quieter at lower settings - 47.9 dB(A) - it is still louder than Intel's boxed cooler. There's also a whistling sound which is irritating after a while. The noise comes from the fan switch's built-in PWM controller, which is clocked at 4.7 KHz and causes some other parts to oscillate.