Testing Methodology

Seeing as I do not have any sophisticated equipment to detect vibration or a sound level meter, a fairly crude test methodology will be used. Two hollow metal cookie boxes will be placed, with their lids removed, against a wooden floor. Given the fact that these boxes are hollow, they resonate quite loudly when there is a slight vibration. A fan will be placed between these two boxes, with its sides resting on each side of the boxes. The fan will be placed in such a way as to direct air upwards to avoid too much air turbulence around the boxes, which could cause them to resonate even more.


The simple testing methodology

The fan will be tested with and without the Sharkoon Anti Vibe Magnetic fan frame. The noise coming from the resonating boxes will be compared between the two tests.

In terms of fans, the Noctua NF-S12-1200 case fan will be used with the 120 mm Sharkoon Anti Vibe Magnetic, and the HEC D80SL-12 case fan will be used with the 80 mm Sharkoon Anti Vibe Magnetic.

Tested Fans:
- Fan #1: Noctua NF-S12-1200
- Fan #2: HEC D80SL-12 (possibly a Yate Loon)

Test Setup
- CPU: AMD Athlon X2 5000+ Black Edition @ 2.6 GHz 1.15V
- Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H 780G
- RAM: Corsair XMS2 TWIN2X4096-6400C5 PC2-6400 2x2GB
- Case: Antec NSK3480 mATX
- Power supply: Antec EarthWatts 380W
- CPU cooler: Noctua NH-U12P with Noctua NF-P12 @ 5V
- Case fan: Noctua NF-P12 @ 5V
- Hard drive 1: Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD6400AAKS 640GB
- Hard drive 2: Hitachi DeskStar T7K500 HDT725025VLAT80 250GB
- DVD Drive: LG GH22NS30 DVD Writer
- OS: Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 64bit
- Mouse pad: QPAD|UC Large
- Monitor: Dell E207WFP 20” TN