Good Quiet CPU Fan

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mike
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M

Mike

Hi all,

I've got an ASUS P4533 board (first gen I believe) which I am very pleased
with. However, one thing that I want to change is the CPU fan. With the
Q-Fan feature on, the fan is very quiet while running processor-light
applications like web surfing and word processing.

Recently I've been tinkering around with more cpu-intensive programs and as
a result the fan gets faster, but the noise this thing puts out is killing
me. It's like a high-pitched wheeze that burrows into my skull, which is
not helpful when I'm trying to concentrate.

Ok, maybe I'm being a little over-dramatic, but I needs my quiet! What's a
good quiet CPU fan that'll work with this mobo? I don't mind dropping 50
or 60 bucks for a decent one. Any help would be much appreciated!

Thanks,
Mike
 
Mike said:
Hi all,

I've got an ASUS P4533 board (first gen I believe) which I am very pleased
with. However, one thing that I want to change is the CPU fan. With the
Q-Fan feature on, the fan is very quiet while running processor-light
applications like web surfing and word processing.

Recently I've been tinkering around with more cpu-intensive programs and as
a result the fan gets faster, but the noise this thing puts out is killing
me. It's like a high-pitched wheeze that burrows into my skull, which is
not helpful when I'm trying to concentrate.

Ok, maybe I'm being a little over-dramatic, but I needs my quiet! What's a
good quiet CPU fan that'll work with this mobo? I don't mind dropping 50
or 60 bucks for a decent one. Any help would be much appreciated!

Thanks,
Mike
Click to expand...

If you look in the CPU section of Tomshardware, there are some heatsink/fan
reviews:

http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/20030113/cooler5-39.html

If you do a scatter plot of the data, two units stand out:

AVC Frost (Model 112C81) 0.37 degrees C/W 51.2dB at 4600 RPM

Vantec VA4-C7040 0.39 degrees C/W 45.3dB at ??? RPM

The reason I picked those two, is they had very good thermal resistance
numbers, and if you use a fan speed controller (a resistor to drop
the voltage to the fan), they will still do a good job at lower RPMs.
Of the two, the Vantec fan has "Tip Magnetic Drive", which means the
fan motor magnetic repulsion occurs on the ends of the fan blades.
This means there is no fat "hub" in the middle of the fan, and so
the air flow pattern is better.

http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/20030113/cooler5-33.html

If you go to the Vantec site, there are two different products.
The VA4-C7040 is for Socket A, and the VP4-C7040 is for Socket 478 P4.
The clamping mechanism differs between the two products.

http://www.vantecusa.com/p_va4_c7040.html (Athlon)
VA4-C7040
12V 0.3A 5600RPM 35.5CFM 38dB 384 grams

http://www.vantecusa.com/p_vp4_c7040.html (P4)
VP4-C7040
12V 0.3A 5600RPM 35.5CFM 38dB 436 grams

What I cannot tell you is whether the Aeroflow sound will "drill into
your head" or not.

The product is listed at Newegg.

You can adjust the speed of the fan with a Fanmate or Q-Fan.
The fanmate can handle a little less than 0.5A fans.

http://www.zalman.co.kr/english/product/cnpsfanmate.htm

While over at the Zalman site, I ran into this one as well.
The numbers look pretty good, but the product is heavier at
773 grams. For either of these heatsinks, it is a good idea
to remove the heatsink from the computer, before shipping the
computer anywhere. A sudden shock will rip the heatsink from
the motherboard, due to the mass.

http://www.zalman.co.kr/english/product/cnps7000a-cu.htm
http://www4.tomshardware.com/business/20030319/cebit2003_final-04.html
http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/20030616/hydrocool200-08.html
http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/20030616/hydrocool200-11.html

12V ???A 2400RPM ???CFM 25dB 773 grams

I think the CNPS7000 comes with a Fanmate...

This page shows the CNPS7000 has slightly better cooling performance.
http://www.a1-electronics.net/Heatsinks/2003/Zalman_7000A-Cu_Sept03.shtml

As for the current the CNPS7000 draws from the 3 pin header, I cannot
find a number stated anywhere. Due to the low RPMs, it is probably in
the 100 to 200mA range. If in doubt, use an adapter that converts
a drive connector into power for a fan. Since the CNPS7000 is so
quiet, you probably won't even need the Fanmate controller.

HTH,
Paul
 
Paul said:
<[email protected]> wrote:

If you look in the CPU section of Tomshardware, there are some heatsink/fan
reviews:

http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/20030113/cooler5-39.html

If you do a scatter plot of the data, two units stand out:

AVC Frost (Model 112C81) 0.37 degrees C/W 51.2dB at 4600 RPM

Vantec VA4-C7040 0.39 degrees C/W 45.3dB at ??? RPM

The reason I picked those two, is they had very good thermal resistance
numbers, and if you use a fan speed controller (a resistor to drop
the voltage to the fan), they will still do a good job at lower RPMs.
Of the two, the Vantec fan has "Tip Magnetic Drive", which means the
fan motor magnetic repulsion occurs on the ends of the fan blades.
This means there is no fat "hub" in the middle of the fan, and so
the air flow pattern is better.
Click to expand...

FWIW, I have two Vantec Aeroflow HSFs. One is nice and quiet, the other is
quite buzzy, so I guess it's a crapshoot from the factory. I haven't tried
replacing the fan w/ a regular one yet....
 
Don't go the Vantec, ive got one and it aint quiet.

Its ok better than my Volcano 7.

But if you realy want quiet try some of the newer ones, got a name
just can't thnk of it :)

Bye.
 
I have an N7N8X deluxe with XP3200+. I just got a Thermatke Silent Boost
cooler that is fantastic. It is almost totally silent and cools great.
 
Thats the one Silent boost :)

Heard some good things about it.

As long as you don't overclock its silent :)

Just got to read some more reviews to convince me ?

And how they get it silent when many failed ?
 
Thats the one Silent boost :)

Heard some good things about it.

As long as you don't overclock its silent :)

Just got to read some more reviews to convince me ?

And how they get it silent when many failed ?
Click to expand...

The Silent Boost has a 0.5 degrees C/W rating, so the cooling is worse
than the Vantec. Thermaltake's improvement on the Silent Boost, is
the fan housing is porous, so air can be pulled into the side of the
fan body. If you look at the Zalman fan, it doesn't even have a body!
So, my suspicion is the Zalman would be quieter (too bad it is so
heavy).

Also, I think I read a couple of posts over on abxzone, where people
are having to bend a couple of fins slightly on the Zalman, to get
it to fit. The Zalman site has some clearance information (dimensions
and the like), but if you don't have the motherboard in your possession
already, it would be tough to figure out whether it fits or not. I
think it might be the Northbridge heatsink that gets in the way.

Paul
 
I nhave an Intel P$ with the stock heat sink and fan that Intel provides in the
boxed CPU. The heat sink is fairly large and the fane is bigger than the
typical fans I see supplied on AMD processors. It is plugged into the CPU fan
socket on my P4T-E and it is not noisy at all. The larger fan and surface area
of the CPU cools very effectively and does not make lots of noise. In fact, if
I shut all the other fans off in my computer and close the case as a test I can
NOT hear the CPU fan. The fans that make the racket in my computer are all the
case fans. The two in the top back are tied to the power supply and make a
racket. They drlled small holes in the case where those fans go and did the
same in the front bottom and they cut down air flow terribly. I cut a large
circle out the diameter of the fan blades and unstalled metal grills, this
bosted airflow tremendoulsy!

If the case manufacturers would do their homework and place internal fan
mounts so they would blow on components and install one large fan at the top
back with a proper case cutout and do the same for intake at the bottom front
then we could slow down the RPM and noise of these fans and still move enough
air to cool effectively!

--Nat
 
WATER is ICE COLD and QUIET
http://www.moddedcomputers.com/got_water.htm

~Mike~
http://www.moddedcomputers.com/

message |
| Thats the one Silent boost :)
|
| Heard some good things about it.
|
| As long as you don't overclock its silent :)
|
| Just got to read some more reviews to convince me ?
|
| And how they get it silent when many failed ?
|
|
| On Sat, 01 Nov 2003 21:58:45 GMT, "Scott Jarvis" <[email protected]>
| wrote:
|
| >I have an N7N8X deluxe with XP3200+. I just got a Thermatke Silent Boost
| >cooler that is fantastic. It is almost totally silent and cools great.
| >
| >| >> In article <rA2ob.111732$0Z5.87172@lakeread03>, Mike
| >>
| >> > Hi all,
| >> >
| >> > I've got an ASUS P4533 board (first gen I believe) which I am very
| >pleased
| >> > with. However, one thing that I want to change is the CPU fan. With
| >the
| >> > Q-Fan feature on, the fan is very quiet while running processor-light
| >> > applications like web surfing and word processing.
| >> >
| >> > Recently I've been tinkering around with more cpu-intensive programs
and
| >as
| >> > a result the fan gets faster, but the noise this thing puts out is
| >killing
| >> > me. It's like a high-pitched wheeze that burrows into my skull,
which
| >is
| >> > not helpful when I'm trying to concentrate.
| >> >
| >> > Ok, maybe I'm being a little over-dramatic, but I needs my quiet!
| >What's a
| >> > good quiet CPU fan that'll work with this mobo? I don't mind
dropping
| >50
| >> > or 60 bucks for a decent one. Any help would be much appreciated!
| >> >
| >> > Thanks,
| >> > Mike
| >>
| >> If you look in the CPU section of Tomshardware, there are some
| >heatsink/fan
| >> reviews:
| >>
| >> http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/20030113/cooler5-39.html
| >>
| >> If you do a scatter plot of the data, two units stand out:
| >>
| >> AVC Frost (Model 112C81) 0.37 degrees C/W 51.2dB at 4600 RPM
| >>
| >> Vantec VA4-C7040 0.39 degrees C/W 45.3dB at ??? RPM
| >>
| >> The reason I picked those two, is they had very good thermal resistance
| >> numbers, and if you use a fan speed controller (a resistor to drop
| >> the voltage to the fan), they will still do a good job at lower RPMs.
| >> Of the two, the Vantec fan has "Tip Magnetic Drive", which means the
| >> fan motor magnetic repulsion occurs on the ends of the fan blades.
| >> This means there is no fat "hub" in the middle of the fan, and so
| >> the air flow pattern is better.
| >>
| >> http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/20030113/cooler5-33.html
| >>
| >> If you go to the Vantec site, there are two different products.
| >> The VA4-C7040 is for Socket A, and the VP4-C7040 is for Socket 478 P4.
| >> The clamping mechanism differs between the two products.
| >>
| >> http://www.vantecusa.com/p_va4_c7040.html (Athlon)
| >> VA4-C7040
| >> 12V 0.3A 5600RPM 35.5CFM 38dB 384 grams
| >>
| >> http://www.vantecusa.com/p_vp4_c7040.html (P4)
| >> VP4-C7040
| >> 12V 0.3A 5600RPM 35.5CFM 38dB 436 grams
| >>
| >> What I cannot tell you is whether the Aeroflow sound will "drill into
| >> your head" or not.
| >>
| >> The product is listed at Newegg.
| >>
| >> You can adjust the speed of the fan with a Fanmate or Q-Fan.
| >> The fanmate can handle a little less than 0.5A fans.
| >>
| >> http://www.zalman.co.kr/english/product/cnpsfanmate.htm
| >>
| >> While over at the Zalman site, I ran into this one as well.
| >> The numbers look pretty good, but the product is heavier at
| >> 773 grams. For either of these heatsinks, it is a good idea
| >> to remove the heatsink from the computer, before shipping the
| >> computer anywhere. A sudden shock will rip the heatsink from
| >> the motherboard, due to the mass.
| >>
| >> http://www.zalman.co.kr/english/product/cnps7000a-cu.htm
| >> http://www4.tomshardware.com/business/20030319/cebit2003_final-04.html
| >> http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/20030616/hydrocool200-08.html
| >> http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/20030616/hydrocool200-11.html
| >>
| >> 12V ???A 2400RPM ???CFM 25dB 773 grams
| >>
| >> I think the CNPS7000 comes with a Fanmate...
| >>
| >> This page shows the CNPS7000 has slightly better cooling performance.
| >>
http://www.a1-electronics.net/Heatsinks/2003/Zalman_7000A-Cu_Sept03.shtml
| >>
| >> As for the current the CNPS7000 draws from the 3 pin header, I cannot
| >> find a number stated anywhere. Due to the low RPMs, it is probably in
| >> the 100 to 200mA range. If in doubt, use an adapter that converts
| >> a drive connector into power for a fan. Since the CNPS7000 is so
| >> quiet, you probably won't even need the Fanmate controller.
| >>
| >> HTH,
| >> Paul
| >
|
 
I suggest you visit the silent-pc web site. They have a list of recommended
stuff and do their own tests. There are also forums there where you can
discuss hardware setups amongst other quiet people.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/

Personally I use a Thermalright SLK-800 heatsink which is a large all copper
unit and a Vantec Stealth 80mm low rpm fan (2000). After going from the
stock CPU fan to the new heatsink and fan my video card was clearly the
loudest thing in my PC. I bought a passive cooler for the VGA and now my
power supply is the last noisy thing but it is soo much better. I am
considering a passively cooled power supply.

David
 
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