Benchmarks: Noise
The Vanquish R4 has offered strong performance in all of our benchmarks thus far, however it isn't quite as impressive in the acoustic department. The system isn't obnoxiously loud, but having opted for a sound-deadening Fractal Design chassis, it's a shame PC Specialist hasn't cherry-picked other components for minimal noise. The FSP power supply, for example, isn't the quietest and has a fan that runs at all times, irrespective of load.
Overclocking Haswell is obviously proving to be a challenge, and as a result of the higher temps, the Hydro Series cooler ramps up in speed and creates more noise in order to maintain stability under extreme 2D load.
We see similar noise levels during 3D load, and it's interesting to note that PC Specialist ships the Vanquish R4 with fans set to a 'standard' profile in the BIOS. Switching to 'silent' will reduce noise levels somewhat, but the manufacturer obviously feels cooling the Haswell core is the highest priority.
