I need to find a very quiet (OK, quieter than the fan on my AMD/Coolermaster, at least) 60x10/15mm fan for use on a CPU heatsink. It must be low profile because my case (Palo Alto PA-450) has very limited clearance (55mm total height from CPU socket to bottom of power supply). I tried undervolting my current fan with a Zalman resistor thingy but it really doesn't move enough air now.

Thanks

Pete

Check my first post here on the SPCR forums for a very quiet, very low airflow 60x60x10mm fan.

However, I really don't think you're going to find a quiet low profile 60mm fan with sufficient airflow to cool anything bigger than say 30W. Even quiet regular-height 60mm fans are hard to come by. I'd try a different tack on quieting your system-- try to get a short heatsink and then stick a full size 80mm fan on it. I don't know if there are any short/low profile heatsinks made to accept 80mm fans, but it will probably still work better than a slightly taller heatsink with a tiny fan.

I picked up a 60x15mm Panaflo L1A from Digikey (they also have H1A's and 80x15mm fans), we'll see how that goes. It's rated at 14CFM/21dB. Currently I am running my modded Palo Alto PA-450 with the rear 92mm fan (my primary mod) unplugged (I also bought a 92mm L1A which I plan to 7V which will go there) and I have a Zalman resistor on my Coolermaster heatsink fan, so the only real system exhaust comes from my Zalman power supply. With that little, my idle temps are 50C CPU/47C Case/19C Ambient while running a Thoroughbred 2400+, WD 1200JB, and a Passive Radeon 9000, and the system is as quiet as it's ever been. I think swapping out the CPU fan for the Panaflo and adding the 92mm L1A will show similar temps, but under load.

Pete

I've got a couple of 92mm L1As and you can still hear them at 7V. Try running it at 5V as well and it will be noticably quieter and still give decent airflow.

Perhaps you could use a bigger fan in conjunction with a duct to lead the air to and through the heatsink across the processor, rather than blowing down onto it.