MSI Nightblade Review (Dual SSD, i7 4770K, R9 290X)

We have built a system inside a Lian Li chassis with no case fans and have used a fanless cooler on our CPU. The motherboard is also passively cooled. This gives us a build with almost completely passive cooling and it means we can measure noise of just the graphics card inside the system when we run looped 3dMark tests.

We measure from a distance of around 1 meter from the closed chassis and 4 foot from the ground to mirror a real world situation. Ambient noise in the room measures close to the limits of our sound meter at 28dBa. It isn’t a real world situation to be measuring with a case panel off only a few centimeters away from a video card.

Why do this? Well this means we can eliminate secondary noise pollution in the test room and concentrate on only the video card. It also brings us slightly closer to industry standards, such as DIN 45635.

KitGuru noise guide

10dBA – Normal Breathing/Rustling Leaves
20-25dBA – Whisper
30dBA – High Quality Computer fan
40dBA – A Bubbling Brook, or a Refridgerator
50dBA – Normal Conversation
60dBA – Laughter
70dBA – Vacuum Cleaner or Hairdryer
80dBA – City Traffic or a Garbage Disposal
90dBA – Motorcycle or Lawnmower
100dBA – MP3 player at maximum output
110dBA – Orchestra
120dBA – Front row rock concert/Jet Engine
130dBA – Threshold of Pain
140dBA – Military Jet takeoff/Gunshot (close range)
160dBA – Instant Perforation of eardrum

Generally, the system is quiet. However this is far from the overall picture.

When the CPU is under heavy load situations, the fans spin up quickly to counter the rising temperatures. When both R9 290X and i7 4770k are stressed all of the fans spin at very high speeds. The system at full pelt is very noisy and the first time this happened I thought the case might actually take off.

Generally however when gaming we recorded noise levels around 37-38dBa. Acceptable, if a little higher than we would like.

Adding in a Corsair H60 might help to reduce noise levels a little as the MSI CPU cooler fan does spin very quickly when the temperatures rise.

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