Latest Culprit - Alpha PAL 8942 Intake Cover

[Riffer]

I was doing some more fan swapping today when I ended up having the CPU fan running alone. I heard a buzzing, but since all the fans and drives were off, it could only be the HSF.

I knew it wasn't the fan, but tested it off the heatsing to be sure...etc,

The buzzing ended up being caused by the aluminum intake cover of my Alpha heatsink.

I removed it, and put some grommets between the fan and the heatsink, and now I have one less annoying noise to deal with.

[Boomerang Rapido]

Interresting! I never really gave it much thought when I installed mine, I just slapped all the parts together. Maybe I'll try removing it and see if it makes any noticable difference.

[NeilBlanchard]

Hello:

Did you try the grommets with the shroud? Or, maybe small pieces of duct tape on the corners? The shroud is there to guide the air for more efficient airflow -- are you using the fan to pull air up through the HS or blow down through it?

[Riffer]

Hello:

Did you try the grommets with the shroud? Or, maybe small pieces of duct tape on the corners? The shroud is there to guide the air for more efficient airflow -- are you using the fan to pull air up through the HS or blow down through it?

I knew it was supposed to guide the air, but it hasn't affected temperatures one bit. Maybe the intake cover is just one of those things that was better in theory than practice.

Once I determined that, there wasn't much reason to figure out a way to silence it and put it back on.

Doing all kinds of things today (off sick).

Just pulled the fan off my videocard and running it with a little Alpha heatsink, and a 80mm L1A at 8V blowing on it from a Zalman side bracket.

Not as succesful - video card tems are up 6 degrees C, but the card is still stable.

[Gekkani]

Difference with shroud and no shroud is about 2ºC less (with the shroud)

[NeilBlanchard]

Hello:

Difference with shroud and no shroud is about 2ºC less (with the shroud)

There may come a time when you would wish for 2ºC cooler temps! I switched from a 32CFM/28dBA fan to a 18CFM/18dBA and gained about 2ºC. So, use the shroud (with something on it to dampen the vibration) and use a fan that makes half as much noise!