need a quiet heat sink fan

[Sancho]

And I mean quiet.  I've tried two separate units which advertised "30 db".  Heh, not even close.  These HSF are the loudest things in my house.  I seriously think they are harzardous to my hearing.  As someone here once said in a long-forgotten thread, they sound like a Pratt & Whitney on runup.  I haven't had any rodent problems in my house since installing the blasted thing.  

Anybody know of a Athlon 1.4 rated HSF that is actually quiet?  I do not care about overclocking at all.  I just need a HSF that won't melt my CPU at normal operating speeds.  THanks.

[Raubvogel]

I'm running a Thermalright SK-6. It's a huge copper monstrosity. You can mount a 80mm fan on it that spins at lower RPMs than those 60mm screamers.

[Sancho]

replace the fan eh?  Good idea.  I just might do that with my current HSF.  I'm pretty sure I could sacrifice some cooling efficiency for noise reduction...  

[SOB]

http://www.quietpc.ca/cpucooling.html

The Flower Cooler looks kinda neat.  A word of caution...looking at the prices of these products can cause sudden, uncontrolled bowel movements!  


SOB

[Sancho]

LOL SOB!  You know the prices are in Canadian dollars?  That's like Monopoly money... the "peso del norte".      Actually that flower thing does look like it would do the trick, but don't like the looks of the fan mount--looks flimsy.

I ordered a $7 resistor that plugs in between the fan and the motherboard.  It has a dial on it to adjust the resistance and thereby control fan speed.

     

I've got the VIA Hardware Monitor which can tell me my CPU temp and fan speed in realtime, so once I get the resistor installed, I'll gradually dial down the fan speed until my HSF can just keep the CPU cool enough under load--say just below 50° Cel?  How high should I let the temp go?

If this doesn't work well enough, I also found an adaptor to mount an 80mm fan on my 60mm heat sink.  The 80mm fans are cheap, and typically put out more air flow at slower RPMs and lower noise levels.  I'll keep ya posted.

[ 12-24-2001: Message edited by: Sancho ]

[Am0n]

Sancho you also, if you really want it quiet, insulate the walls of your PC with thin styrafoam(sp).

It is one of the greatest conductors of sound and will eliminate a lot of the noise. While the normal CPU case is made of medals which are some of the worse conductors of sounds, noraly better amplifiers otherwise.

you can pick up a few sheets of styrafoam at a hardward store for dirt cheap, use a strong adheisive to bond it, i use liguid nail (for everything i can hehe).  

[Reschke]

I have a Thermaltake Volcano 6Cu+ that is not really loud by itself. Its the remaining fans in the case that make the system sound like a Huey UH-1 taking off.    

[Sancho]

Reschke, I have the same heat sink.  At 7200 RPM it is really very loud.  I put the "Fan Mate" rheostat in and dialed the fan down to 5500 RPM.  The CPU temp went up 6 degrees under 100% load and the system is now a lot quieter.  I can actually hear the hard drives spinning now.  

My question now is how hot is too hot for an Athlon 1400 CPU?  Currently I'm sitting at 51° Celsius with the CPU at 100% utilization for the past 20 minutes or so.

[Raubvogel]

51C should be fine. My room temp stays pretty hot here in Hawaii and my CPU runs at 52C idle, about 56C under load. Athlons are rated for much higher temps. Generally, as long as it stays under 60 its fine.

If you are worried about it, check out a SK-6 heatsink. I used to run the Volcano6 Cu+, and when I switched to the SK-6 my temps dropped about 5 C.

[Nifty]

Max die temps on the Athlons are 90 celsius.  they should be free from harm below 75, but I wouldn't recommend going anywhere near that.  

[Gunthr]

Panaflow fans are the longest lived, most reliable and quietest for the cfm in my opinion.

[Thorns]

Sancho,

Check out the water coolers for cpu's.  They are quiet...verry verry quite, and they work!
 http://www.swiftnets.com/  

Thorns

[ 12-28-2001: Message edited by: Thorns ]