Silent HSF

SaBBz

SaBBz

SaBBz

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
3,215
Location
Elsewhere
I'm looking at getting a silent HSF for my XP2500 (at XP3200), on an Abit NF7-S V2.0. I guess a 120mm fan would be best but I'm not sure what would be the best heat sink for me. Temperatures aren't of great concern to me, though stability is. If someone could recommend me a good setup then I'd be very grateful. Ideally I'd like to use a SilenX 120mm LED fan with the heat sink.

Many thanks.
 
ThermalRight SI-97 (Socket A) Heatsink (HS-019-TR)
- if you can get hold of it they are excellent

Thermaltake Sonic Tower 4-in-1 Noiseless Heatpipe (Socket 939/754/775/478) CPU Cooler (CL-P0071) (HS-009-TT)
- My personal choice if it will fit! Can have 1,2 or 3 120mm fans of your choice and could probably cool a 2500+ Passively
 
Found a thermalright SI-97A (not sure on the difference between the 97 and 97A, but it seems identical) and ordered it, wasnt cheap but hopefully worth it. Planning on getting an Akasa amber 92mm, im assuming this will be fine for it. The one they recommend, a panaflo puts out more air, 48cfm compared to 29 from the akasa.

Im also getting a zalman northbridge heatsink with it, looking forward to some silence! Although Ill probably realise how loud the graphics card fan is next, no doubt a arctic cooling vga silencer will be my next purchase.

Oh and that thermaltake tower is barmy, dont think id trust that hanging off my motherboard!
 
I've got one of those Sonic Towers - I thought it looked ridiculous and so had to give it a try. It's on a S754 64 3200 and without any fans running in my Antec Sonata 2 it idles at 32. Of course putting it through Half Life 2 without any fans on sends to poor cpu into high 60s/low 70s. So I've got a Silenx 120mm exhaust case fan very close to the sonic tower and it's plugged in to the cpu fan supply. I use the rather excellent Speedfan to control it. I've set it up so the fan is inaudible until the cpu gets above 40 and then Speedfan cranks it up to full tilt. Playing HL2 it goes up to about 50 C.

Most of the time the fan is running at about 1000 rpm and for general use the cpu is 32 to 36 C and it's super quiet. (I'm now looking into fanless power supplies as of course I am chasing the silent dream).

With the Silenx on full rpm it really is not as quiet as their claims : 14dba. No where near in my opinion. During game play you don't notice it and Speedfan makes all the difference you are only doing general stuff.

Whatever cooler you get please have a look at Speedfan - it's a great free bit of software.

DT
 
I thought it looked ridiculous and so had to give it a try
Click to expand...

I like that logic!

Im using speedfan at the moment, but the fan thats on there will only go down to about 2500rpm before it turns off completly. So its not actually very quiet even when idleing. Dont know if thats the fan itself or the motherboard, or even the settings on speedfan, but its gone on long enough.
 
Graeme 2 : The max rpm of my fan is only 1500 and speed fan can control it right down to about 820 rpm which as I say makes it very quiet.

I did think about the Blue Orb 2 from Thermaltake and if that fan is controllable with SpeedFan then I think it would be a great solution. I would have gone that way if the Blue Orb 2 had been out at the time.

DT
 
maybe its my motherboard thats causing the rubbish speed control.
The SI-97 came today, just finished fitting it now, along with a zalman passive northbridge cooler.
The thermalright is a beast, only just fits below the psu. Working pretty well too it seems, its about 14 degrees cooler at idle than it was this morning (the side is still off mind). Ill wait and see if it keeps that up after a while of being on. Not tested it at load yet but it looks promising, and best of all the fan is almost silent :)

As I expected though the whole system hasnt really got much quieter, im blaming the graphics card! Thats next on the hitlist, and maybe a silent psu...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom