independently recorded (i run www.techpowerup.com). never ever trust what the manufacturers tell you.
yes, accurately = expensive
getting some usable numbers that are better than a wild and usually inaccurate guess:
- sound level meter that goes down to 30 dbA
- 4 gb cf card
- cf to pata adapter
- lowest end system that is just fast enough to properly stress the card
load the graphics card, when you see max. temp reached, jam the cpu and psu fan - poof you got a passive system where only the vga card emits noise.
now measure from 10-20 cm distance and you got your numbers.
drop me a line on instant messenger if you have additional questions.
"zero noise" means there is no noise (unrealistic, your breathing and heart beat is already noisier than zero). maybe rewrite to "no additional noise from the case that i can hear" or "whole system is subjetively not louder than ..."
