Greetings.

Currently, in addition to the PSU fan, the stock e2180 CPU heatsink fan and the (stock) 120mm case fan, there are two 80mm fans (one on the CPU vent, one in the case front).

It ain't so quiet. I don't need silent, but quieter should be achievable.
I'd very much like to reduce the noise and, if possible, the number of fans.

The components are:

Antec NSK4480 (includes the Earthwatts 380w PSU)
GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L
Pentium E2180 Allendale 2.0GHz
MSI NX8600GT-T2D256EZ GeForce 8600GT 256MB GDDR3
Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) (PC2 6400) DDR2 800 SDRAM

Can folks suggest
i) which, if any, fans I can likely safely do without (and how hot is too hot, btw -- Speedfan currently reports 40-46C for the cores, depending on load -- I think 65C is Intel's recommended max. temp)
ii) which fans I'm likely to most benefit from replacing with quieter fans?
iii) whether replacing the stock CPU heatsink with a third-party upgrade would be worthwhile.

Thanks kindly,

- Richard
http://www.oldWithoutMoney.com

If you're worried about temperatures, you'll have to invest in heavier or more efficient cooling elements to compensate for less airflow - be that CPU, GPU or chipset. I'd say you can safely try removing the intake fan (it's just 80mm, and intakes usually achieve little) and the Advanced Chassis Air Guide for starters. Both are too small, and undoubtedly do little for overall cooling. You would benefit noisewise, perhaps even for CFM, from a better 120mm fan; the TriCools aren't bad but nowhere near as quiet as the best.

That's about it to start off with. Happy experimentation.

Certainly remove that 80mm fan from the CPU duct. Remove the intake too, but keep an eye on HDD and GPU temps. Are you running SpeedFan or some other utility that will tell you the fan speed of your CPU HSF? If that fan is spinning faster than ~ 1,200 RPM you will be able make things much quieter (barring very noisy HDD) by replacing the heatsink with something bigger and better.

> Are you running SpeedFan or some other utility that will tell you
> the fan speed of your CPU HSF?

I do have SpeedFan installed.

I'm curious -- does the motherboard automatically control the CPU HSF speed -- 'cause I certainly didn't set anything up?

> If that fan is spinning faster than ~ 1,200 RPM
> you will be able make things much quieter
> (barring very noisy HDD) by replacing the heatsink
> with something bigger and better.

Maybe an XP-90? Mini-Ninja?

Reading the GA-P35-DS3L manual, it does say something about "CPU Smart FAN Control", and it seems to be enabled by default. So it does automatically control the fan to some degree.

Ninja Mini sounds nice. Funny it's not on The List. It has been reviewed though. I'm happy with my 9500 AM2, but I'm sure there are better models out there, especially fanwise.

The minja is not on the list, because the last update of the list is from a year and a halve ago.
The 9500 (Zalman, right?) is a good heatsink, but Zalman's fans are not. See the FAQ by the way for quieting overall system noise. Shut down fans one by one and see what (noisewise) makes the most difference.

So, how fast is the CPU fan spinning?


All Socket 775 motherboards have 4-pin CPU fan headers and offer PWM fan control based on CPU temp. Sometimes this feature is disabled by default and must be turned on/calibrated in BIOS.


Both reasonable choices. Given its relatively low price, I'd consider a full-sized Ninja too.

At idle, around 1200 RPM. Not quite double that under load.

So presumably either a better install of the stock heatsink or a better one is in order?

- Richard
http://www.oldWithoutMoney.com

They should really update the damn list already.

Stop the cooler fan like Floris suggested and see if it's an improvement you'd like made. Only way to find out, but over 1000 is usually audible, over 2000 loud.

I find the 9500 AM2 fan adequate for my purposes. Audible but smooth at 1300 RPM - not worth the money to swap for something quieter. If silence is top priority, you're better off with something you can slap a fan of your choice onto. I'm personally averse of very heavy or large heatsinks, such as the Ninja, as I appreciate ample working space and transportation without additional support.

Well, 1200 RPM on that particular fan (if my sample was typical) is slow enough that your HDD is going to be significantly louder. So, just be aware that upgrading the heatsink is only going to buy you something for when your PC is under significant load. For myself, I only really care about the PC being "silent" at idle. If I had gotten satisfactory cooling out of the stock HSF at 1200 RPM I probably would have stuck with it (seemed like I needed it at about 1600 RPM to do the job, but like so many I was overly conservative about my idle temps before I had really thought things through).

Haha!

Recommended Heatsinks updated:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/vi ... 6&start=30
and
Recommended heatsinks (the list):
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article30-page1.html

IS MAI RUCKY DAY! ...and yours too. Easy comparisons.

you really only NEED a fan in the PSU, and one for case exhaust. So 2 fans.

In a very low power system, you could probably do it with 1 fan, just in the PSU, but then the PSU fan may ramp up and be loud. Which is why its best to have a second exhaust fan to keep noise low.

If you get a motherboard that positions the cpu socket close to the rear case exhaust, and put a large passive heatsink on it like a ninja or thermalright ultra 120, then it will be suffecient airflow to keep your cpu cool.

no reason to have fans for any northbridge. Just get a motherboard with a passive solution, or a large passive heatsink to slap on it after the fact.

You can cool some pretty hot vga cards passivly with some agressive aftermarket heatsinks and good case airflow. An 8600 series wouldnt be hard to cool passivly.

As for what fans to use. I really like the 120mm 1200rpm Scythe S-Flex fans. You can get them from newegg. For 92mm and 80mm though i only use nexus. The only fan i dont replace in systems is the PSU fan. Just get a quality PSU in the first place that is quiet, and you dont need to worry about replacing the fan in it. Replace all other fans in the system though, and undervolt them all. I use zalman fanmates. One per system. Most of my systems have 3 fans including the PSU, and i can put the other 2 fans on a single fanmate.