Can I swap to a quieter 80mm CPU fan than this?

gevorg · Post by **gevorg** » Sat May 01, 2010 3:31 pm

I currently have a huge Scythe heatsink (SCMNJ-1000) with DFS802312L 80mm fan. Specs here:
http://www.scythe-usa.com/product/acc/0 ... eries.html

Is there a 80mm fan that is much quieter than this? I'm currently using AMD's Cool'n'Quiet, which automatically adjusts CPU clock and fan speed, so the replacement 80mm fan should be good at variable speeds.

Also, I belive the heatsink supports 92mm fans too, are there better options in that area?

Thank you for any suggestions!

SebRad · Post by **SebRad** » Sun May 02, 2010 12:36 am

Hi gevorg, what CPU are you trying to cool with the Mini-Ninja heatsink and is it over-clocked at all?
Scythe fans are typically excellent so I wonder what speed the fan is running and what the CPU temperature is. Your motherboard may come with monitoring software or you can try Speedfan to report the CPU temp and fan speed.
AMDs Cool n Quiet (as far as I can tell) doesn't really have anything to do with the CPUs fan speed directly, it reduces the CPU's speed and voltage at idle, that reduces the heat being put out so the CPU fan can be run slower/quieter.
Often you need to enable fan control in the motherboards BIOS. Also some boards will only control 4 pin PWM fans on the CPU header, your Scythe fan is a 3pin fan.
Running 1000rpm or less your fan should be very quiet, if it's being run 2000+rpm then I'm not surprised you find it loud.

Regards, Seb

gevorg · Post by **gevorg** » Sun May 02, 2010 12:58 pm

Hi SebRad,

My CPU is Athlon 64 X2 5400 Brisbane, and its not overclocked. The motherboard is Asus M2A-VM, which supports 3 and 4-pin CPU fans.

At light/idle usage, the CPU fan speed is 1316RPM and the temperature is 40C. Its pretty quiet during the day, but at evenings when the ambient room noise level is lower, the fan sound is more apparent.

Is it possible to lower the idle/average CPU fan speed to 800-1000RPM and let it increase automatically as temperatures go higher? Maybe this can be an alternative to replacing the CPU fan, but it has to be automatic (don't want to worry about CPU fan settings all the time).

Vicotnik · Post by **Vicotnik** » Sun May 02, 2010 4:06 pm

You could use a Fanmate or similar to lower the voltage a bit, or depending on how hot your CPU gets and how the case ventilation is set up you could also try removing the fan and running the Minja semi passive.

Parappaman · Post by **Parappaman** » Mon May 03, 2010 12:49 am

gevorg wrote:Hi SebRad,

My CPU is Athlon 64 X2 5400 Brisbane, and its not overclocked. The motherboard is Asus M2A-VM, which supports 3 and 4-pin CPU fans.

At light/idle usage, the CPU fan speed is 1316RPM and the temperature is 40C. Its pretty quiet during the day, but at evenings when the ambient room noise level is lower, the fan sound is more apparent.

Is it possible to lower the idle/average CPU fan speed to 800-1000RPM and let it increase automatically as temperatures go higher? Maybe this can be an alternative to replacing the CPU fan, but it has to be automatic (don't want to worry about CPU fan settings all the time).

Check your BIOS for a CPU fan setting and you're done without spending any extra money.

gevorg · Post by **gevorg** » Sun May 09, 2010 11:47 pm

Vicotnik wrote:You could use a Fanmate or similar to lower the voltage a bit, or depending on how hot your CPU gets and how the case ventilation is set up you could also try removing the fan and running the Minja semi passive.

Interesting, but it will require constant temperature monitoring. I'm hoping there is a way to do it by just set it and forget it.

Parappaman wrote:
gevorg wrote:Hi SebRad,

My CPU is Athlon 64 X2 5400 Brisbane, and its not overclocked. The motherboard is Asus M2A-VM, which supports 3 and 4-pin CPU fans.

At light/idle usage, the CPU fan speed is 1316RPM and the temperature is 40C. Its pretty quiet during the day, but at evenings when the ambient room noise level is lower, the fan sound is more apparent.

Is it possible to lower the idle/average CPU fan speed to 800-1000RPM and let it increase automatically as temperatures go higher? Maybe this can be an alternative to replacing the CPU fan, but it has to be automatic (don't want to worry about CPU fan settings all the time).
Check your BIOS for a CPU fan setting and you're done without spending any extra money.

I don't think there is an option for that in the BIOS of Asus M2A-VM. All I can control is Q-FAN on/off, and CPU fan warning RPM.

SebRad · Post by **SebRad** » Mon May 10, 2010 3:43 am

Hi gevorg, happily your motherboard has been reviewed by SPCR and they noted the BIOS options for fan control and also Speedfan setup.
See here.

The board does support 3pin fan control, by Q-Fan, as you know.
I suspect that the Q-Fan isnâ€™t running the CPU slow enough so will need to use Speedfan to reduce it. My experience is Speedfan isnâ€™t great at fan control, it tends not to find a level. I get best effect by setting target temp and a fan speed that should hold the PC under it and if the target temp is exceeded Speedfan will wind the fans up, often all the way till temp down and then repeat when temps climb again.
Guess I use it to set a speed but it has fail safe if temps get too high.

Regards, Seb

lodestar · Post by **lodestar** » Mon May 10, 2010 4:42 am

As your motherboard has a 4 pin PWM CPU fan header then I would have thought that the best answer would have been to fit a PWM fan, such as this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product. If you can find one, the Arctic Cooling F8 80mm PWM Fan is probably an even better buy. To use a PWM fan you will need to set Q-Fan Controller in the BIOS to enabled, and CPU Fan Type to PWM.

PWM fans are essentially CPU temperature controlled, so at idle fan speed will drop right down, and under load it will automatically speed up. The idle speed you will actually get is hard to say, it will depend on factors that affect how hot the CPU is such as ambient temperature and the effect of case air flow. Given the relatively low price of 80mm PWM fans it would certainly be worth trying one.

If your heatsink will take a 92mm this would be a even better choice (potentially lower rpms at idle and load). Again, you could consider the Arctic Cooling 92mm F9 PWM Fan, or from Newegg this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product.

cuizinier · Post by **cuizinier** » Fri Jun 18, 2010 10:46 pm

Hi,

I would use a 92 mm PWM fan and use a software to control speed according to CPU temperature.
speedfan is great and it work with this motherboard.
In speedfan you can set 3 different rotation speeds according to temperatures :
- bellow target temp = minimal speed set in speedfan
- between target and max temp = maximal speed set in speedfan
- above max temp = 100 % fan speed

hope it helps