Actually surprisingly 101 currently with highest PF <| sep |> These are open air coolers not blower styler coolers . They need clearance to move air and properly cooler , that half inch you have between your psu shroud and the cooler is gonna choke it out and deny it the airflow it needs . So no question that its going to run hot and therefore ramp up the fans . Also , if I throw a mic next to any fan its gonna sound loud . So this is gonna be purely based on your opinion if they are actually loud or not . Not to mention that you didn ' t isolate the sound , your aio pump is no doubt running and the psu fan is probably blowing away too . To comment on the RGB accents . It has nothing to do with any plastic overlay , where did you even come up with that notion ? the light is created by Red , Green , and Blue LEDs which really can ' t achieve a bright white . This is the trade off of having many colors to pick from . The problem is consistent with many other RBG fans and case accessories . Search any forum and you ' ll find this discussed at length , some brands can achieve bright white because they use better quality LEDs . So in short lets not trash on Asus for what happens to be your opinion . I personally have had many Asus cards , all of which have been damn near silent in my opinion . We are all entitled to our opinion , but just because I don ' t like something , doesn ' t make it shit . We need more educated reviews , not more rants based on little fact and small scope . Do your research .