This is a noise comparison chart by the good folks at Frosty tech!!
here is the URL for the chart--
http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1851&page=3
Verax Quattro 1 30.9 dB Quiet
Zalman CNPS7000A-Cu low 32.7 dB
Zalman CNPS7000B-CU low 33.2 dB
Zalman CNPS7000-Cu low 33.5 dB
Zalman CNPS9500LED (clip parallel) low 36.2 dB
Gigabyte NeonCooler 8-BL 42.0 dB
Coolermaster Hyper48 43.6 dB
Dynatron A22 44.5 dB
Zalman CNPS7000B-CU high 44.9 dB
Zalman CNPS7000A-Cu high 45.2 dB
Zalman CNPS7000-Cu high 45.2 dB
Ajigo MF043-044 45.4 dB
Scythe Shogun high 45.9 dB
Scythe Kama SCKK1000 47.5 dB
Thermaltake Silentboost K8 49.7 dB
Zalman CNPS9500LED (clip parallel) high 50.3 dB
Gigabyte 3D-Rocket 50.7 dB
Evercool K802-715 51.5 dB
Scythe Samurai SCSM1000 high 51.6 dB
nPowertek NPH K8-1 52.2 dB
Jetart JAX801 53.5 dB
Coolermaster Hyper6 high 54.7 dB
Evercool Magic Cooler 55.5 dB
Dynatron SK-V24 56.4 dB
Gigabyte 3D Rocket-Pro high 56.7 dB
Vantec Mach1 high 56.9 dB
EKL V8 high 57.5 dB
Alpha PAL-8150 58.9 dB
Coolermaster Aquagate Mini high 59.2 dB
AVC Z7U3301001 high 59.9 dB
Cooljag SFO-H high 60.6 dB
Gigabyte 3D Cooler-Pro high 62.5 dB
Gigabyte 3D Cooler-Ultra high 63.0 dB
Titan TTC-K8ATB/825/SC 63.1 dB
CoolJag SFO-D(18SC) 64.0 dB
ASUS Starice high 67.4 dB
Thermaltake Polo 735 high 68.0 dB
Thermaltake Venus 12 high 68.1 dB
Gigabyte G-Power Pro high 71.9 dB Loud
Also heres the Frosty Tech review--
http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1851
I would tend to belive that SPCR`s review concerning the noise issue was scathing and most likely in my opinion over exageratedbut never the less.....they don`t call themselves Silent PC review for nothing!
But with that said it appears as if as many people have stated including myself the zalman 9500 albeit a very good cooler in its own right....is just that a very good cooler!
It does NOT live up to all the hype that surrounded it!!
The last paragraph from the Frosty tech review--
Ultimately, the Zalman CNPS9500 LED is a very good low noise heatsink for any AMD Athlon64 (socket 754/939/940) processor. The heatsink is foremost quiet, and offers among the best balance of noise and thermal levels that we've seen to date. There are cooler heatsinks which are much louder, a very few heatsinks which are much quieter, but no heatsinks which are quieter and cooler.
Just my 2 cookies worth!!
