Thermals were kept under control in all tests, with the Corsair A115 keeping the Core i9-14900K from throttling up to the official Maximum Turbo specification of 253 Watts. Not including the 21.4C environment during the 10-minute Cinebench 2024 endurance test, the hottest package temperature was 93C.

What about running without limits – as in the default state for all motherboards like the ROG Strix Z690 GAMING-E WiFi? Well, as efficient as the A115 was at Intel spec power, the insane 4095W “limit” caused instant throttling even with the fans at 100%. And the fans are not quiet at this speed.

When testing the noise levels, I used the reliable Nady DSM-1X sound pressure meter, which has a nominal accuracy of +/- 1.4 dBA, placed exactly 18 inches from the radiator on the open test surface. This isn’t a realistic scenario, of course, unless you’re running an open system on the desk next to your monitor like I was.

At idle, noise levels were undetectable by the meter, which can only measure up to 30 dBA. I encountered the “BELOW 30dB” warning on the screen at low fan speeds. With a thermal load in the 125W – 170W range, the fan speeds were controlled and the SPL meter registered just 32.8 dBA during the Cinebench endurance test. Pushing things into the 230W – 253W range eventually forced the fan profile up to 100% speeds and the highest reading from the meter was 41.8 dBA.

Ideally, other large air coolers would be included in our testing, but as I literally just built (pun intended) a cooler test bed after an extended period away from thermal testing, this was not to be in this particular review.