Recommendations for a silent CPU Cooler for AMD

User Name: · 18 Nov 2015 at 19:38

I have a AMD X4 CPU and it used to run near silent with the stock cooler.

Now for some unknown reason the CPU Cooler makes a lot of noise now.

The thing that is noisy is the CPU fan on top of the heaksink.

Would it be advisable to replace the fan on the heatsink or maybe replace the entire heatsink.

Don't really want to spend too much on it, maybe a tenner at the most.

mickyflinn · 18 Nov 2015 at 19:49

When you say it makes a lot of noise do you mean the fan runs at high speed ? Maybe just a clean out will do.

User Name: · 18 Nov 2015 at 19:54

The fan makes more noise when gaming but even when just web browsing it is loud.

It wasn't that loud originally. I have taken it out vacuumed it and given it a good solid cleanse, it still makes quite a racket.

mickyflinn · 18 Nov 2015 at 20:06

Is the noise from high fan speed or somthing else ? Do you have a budget in mind

zipp0r · 18 Nov 2015 at 20:17

the bearing in it is probably shot if it makes a rumbling/grinding kinda sound. yes you can buy a replacement fan but you would have to make sure you get the right size one and a similar wattage. might be easier to just buy a new/unused heatsink and fan off ebay.

User Name: · 18 Nov 2015 at 20:38

Don't really want to spend any more than £10.

Noise is from the high fan speed, if I go into bios and reduce the speed to 1 it is quiet but I'm guessing the CPU will overheat if I leave it on that.

mickyflinn · 18 Nov 2015 at 20:40

Which motherboard do you have ? Some boards have utilities like Q- Fan to auto adjust the fan speed.

User Name: · 18 Nov 2015 at 20:51

I don't know what motherboard it is but I do have Q-fan option in bios. Before I had this disabled but since my fan has been getting louder I now enable it and have it set on 8, it is still too loud for my liking but any lower and I think my PC will overheat.

mickyflinn · 18 Nov 2015 at 20:56

It would be worth checking your temps, use a program like real temp, did you give the whole pc a clean ?

Could need thermal paste reaply

User Name: · 18 Nov 2015 at 21:10

I've applied fresh thermal paste onto the heatsink a few weeks back but it didn't make no difference.

The cpu fan is spotless and completely dust free but for some unknown reason it's noisy, I've even oiled the innards of the cpu fan which at first gave it an strange noise but now it's back to how it was. I might buy a cpu fan and swap it around.

P4Clock · 18 Nov 2015 at 21:17

What cooler do you have now?

User Name: · 18 Nov 2015 at 21:22

It's the stock AMD one.

P4Clock · 19 Nov 2015 at 02:23

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/arctic-copper-silent-3-amd-cpu-cooler-hs-053-ar.html
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/xigmatek-tr-sd962-heatpipe-cpu-cooler-92mm-hs-032-xg.html

User Name: · 19 Nov 2015 at 09:50

After P+P, both of those slightly go over my budget.

At the moment the fronts runners for me are:

StarTech TX3 Dual Ball Bearing Replacement Fan

Spire Coolreef Pro
ARCTIC Alpine 64 GT Rev 2
ARCTIC Alpine 64 Pro Rev 2
Arctic Alpine 64 PLUS
XILENCE COO XPCPU

The replacement fan is the cheap and cheerful option but not entirely sure it will fit onto my heatsink properly.

Not entirely sure if the coolers are adequate for my CPU, the artic alpine 64 GT states 70 watts which is under the TDP of my CPU.

This never ends well · 19 Nov 2015 at 15:01

You may be better of buying a cooler from ebay, if you dont want to spend more than £10.

How do you apply the thermal paste as you could have used too much or too little.

User Name: · 20 Nov 2015 at 08:58

I put just enough thermal paste on it so that it didn't overflow out the sides when cpu pressed in.

Didn't know thermal paste could affect how much the fan spins.