An old AMD K7 Athlon slot A cooler: how do I silence this?

snoxu · Post by **snoxu** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 11:49 am

I'm building a pc from some old computer parts I had laying around. By far the noisiest component is the fan of the cooler of an old slot A (or slot1 whatchamacallit) AMD k7 Athlon 500Mhz CPU.

The fan is 50 mm and it's just fooking noisy.

The cooler looks something like this:

(For those that might not remember here's what a slot A CPU and mobo without the cooler looks like link)

What can I do to shut it up? Any tips?

snoxu

peerke · Post by **peerke** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 12:29 pm

Get rid of the 50mm fan, leave the heatsink in place and suspend a nexus 80mm over of it. That's what I did with an old Dell desktop.

snoxu · Post by **snoxu** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 12:34 pm

That sounds crazy, but do-able

How did you manage to suspend the fan though?

EndoSteel · Post by **EndoSteel** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 1:46 pm

A friend of mine runs a P-II CPU with a ZM80C-HP on it

.

peerke · Post by **peerke** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 1:52 pm

snoxu wrote:That sounds crazy, but do-able How did you manage to suspend the fan though?

I used sewing-elastic. Just tie the fan to the case. Very ghetto but very easy and effective.

snoxu · Post by **snoxu** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 1:58 pm

EndoSteel wrote:A friend of mine runs a P-II CPU with a ZM80C-HP on it .

Without the measurements of a ZM80C-HP I don't know if it would fit in the available space.

Suspending an 80 mm fan is looking cheaper

snoxu · Post by **snoxu** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 2:06 pm

peerke wrote:
snoxu wrote:That sounds crazy, but do-able How did you manage to suspend the fan though?
I used sewing-elastic. Just tie the fan to the case. Very ghetto but very easy and effective.

lol, but I'm going to try it, but will the fan dangle around or something? I'd put in the effort if there's a better way of suspending it.

SebRad · Post by **SebRad** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 2:22 pm

Hi, I cooled my P3 using a large heat sink (with original 50mm fan removed) with an 80mm fan held over it on a home made bracket.

I made a template out of card to get the size/shape right then made the metal version. It was cut out if a sheet of mild steel with tin snips, probably ~ 0.5mm. I drilled holes in the case end that match the top two PCI slot screws. It's simply screwed to the top of the slot cover brackets, it was held plenty firmly enough, the metal was a little flexible, I also bent it a bit so the fan was aimed slight backwards of straight down. Probably didn't make much difference to the cooling, I used 80mm Panaflo L1A at 5v, very quiet.
In the case of your Slot A chip there are two problems. Firstly the chip is probably hotter than the PIII 866 I had and second I suspect the fins run left to right rather than top to bottom as on my heat sink. With a faster fan held facing the CPU it may still work or you may need a different heat sink. A quick search on eBay (UK) turned up a couple of possibilities. (inc 700Mhz Chip with heat sink for £10!)
Hope this has given you some ideas,
Seb

snoxu · Post by **snoxu** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 2:31 pm

Peerke: Btw, where did you put the sewing-elastic? Did you wrap it around the CPU, cooler and fan. Or did you suspend the fan from the case?

Is there any danger of the elastic catching fire?

SebRad: it gives me some ideas but I would have to bend a bracket/arm a bit or screew it on the top of the case maybe, because I have the PSU in the way and the fan is going to have to face the CPU, not sideways. I’ll think about for a bit

ronrem · Post by **ronrem** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 5:26 am

Not sure about the shrouding in that first pic,but I could see a visit to the plumbing dept, some PVC pipe,elbows,step-up to a larger diameter. Then a rear mount 120 or 80 can either push or pull. Either way,more airflow at less rpm.

snoxu · Post by **snoxu** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 12:47 pm

Update: for the price of a NoiseBlocker S1 80 mm fan, 4 screws, some sewing eleastic and 4 cable clips (or whatever they're called in english) I’ve managed to supend the fan in front of the heatsink and silence it considerably. I screwed the cable clips to the top of the tower and have the fan suspended from there. It’s looking a bit ghetto, but who cares it’s an old machine anyhow.

Thank you peerke and everyone else for taking they're time and for sharing your ideas.

peerke · Post by **peerke** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 1:14 pm

snoxu wrote:Thank you peerke and everyone else for taking they're time and for sharing your ideas.

That's what we're here for. I'm glad I could help.
I was about to take a picture of my solution but I won't bother, now that you've worked it out by yourself.