Hi SPCR Folks,
I am looking for information from people who have installed a Koolance Aquian ICM 505 or Exos 2 cooler in/onto their system. I would like to upgrade my current system with an Aquian water-cooling setup, and not shoot myself in the foot with noise. The review for the Aquian on systemcooling.com states that the noise level of the cooler is <35 Db on the 'low' setting, which I think is a bit noisy(Not sure if the ambient noise level in the test lab was 35, or it that's the actual sound level). Presumably the noise levels for the Exos 2 and Aquian are similar, which is why I'm asking about both. Please let me know your experiences with either cooler. I haven't found enough info on noise yet to justify a purchase..
I am currently cooling the 'noisy' parts of my system as follows:
AMD 64 3800+ - Cooled with Zalman CNPS 7000
Radeon X800XL - Cooled with Zalman VF700
Asus A8N SLI - Replaced howling Northbridge Fan with 40x40 Coolermaster Fan
These components would all be liquid cooled with the new setup. Thanks!
Koolance Aquian ICM / Exos 2 Noise Levels
Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee
Reply from Koolance
I contacted the 'tech' people at Koolance to see if they have any sound metrics for the Aquian. Here is their reply if you're interested
"The Aquian has 10 fan seed settings so you can pick the performance/noise ratio that suits your tastes. At its lower 3 settings you don't know its on. At the highest 3 settings it is quite obnoxious. In between is purely subjective but I think it is better than the stock P4 Prescott heat sink noise. It is probably in about the same Db range but is not as high pitched so I find it much less obtrusive."
"The Aquian has 10 fan seed settings so you can pick the performance/noise ratio that suits your tastes. At its lower 3 settings you don't know its on. At the highest 3 settings it is quite obnoxious. In between is purely subjective but I think it is better than the stock P4 Prescott heat sink noise. It is probably in about the same Db range but is not as high pitched so I find it much less obtrusive."
Installed an Aquian over the weekend for a client - the stock fan on the Aquian is not quiet. Having said that, the system does seem to have a bit of overhead - running two 3.06ghz Xeon's on it and the temps where in the low 30's, and the pump noise is very, very minimal. So you can most likely install a quieter fan and still have decent temps on an intelligently chosen system. At stock, the Exos II is louder (it has the same fan x2) but once modded it may be the better option, depending on your needs. To me, a low heat system will be fine with the aquian, but if you added a high end CPU plus a couple of gfx cards and sundry components, then you may find that the Exos is better.
Artag
Artag
Anyone else?