Noisy CPU Fan

quietlife · Post by **quietlife** » Sat Sep 25, 2010 9:32 am

Hi, here's my spec:

Zigmatek 600W NRP-PC602 80 PLUS Silent Power Supply
AMD Athlon II X4 Quad Core 640 3.0GHz (Socket AM3) Processor
Nexus Real Silent 120mm Fan with PWM control X2
VTX ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
CoolerMaster Elite 340 Micro-ATX Tower Case
Samsung HD103SJ SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 3.5" Hard Drive
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel
Asus M4A88TD-M EVO/USB3 AMD 880
Sony AD-7260S-0B 24x Internal DVDÂ±R/RW/Ram Drive

I bought this spec with the aim of having a system that is as quiet as possible.

However, overall I'm disappointed by the noise and the fan on this CPU seems to make far more noise than it should. Apparently, the fan and heatsink that came with the processor ARE DEFINITELY the problem. However, could it be the processor is just not good enough for the rest of the spec?

Also, the GPU makes a lot of noise - something else I need to address - especially during gaming!

Darth Santa Fe · Post by **Darth Santa Fe** » Sat Sep 25, 2010 12:08 pm

I've found that AMD's coolers don't have the best sound quality, due to higher speeds and cheap dual ball bearings. They're decent if you can slow them down, but certainly not the best. Some good choices for replacement are Zalman's CNPS10X Quiet, Scythe's Yasya, and a number of others (check SPCR's reviews).

As for the VGA cooler, it's difficult to find many that will fit the 5770. Arctic Cooling's Accelero L2 Pro may work pretty well unless you plan on overclocking the GPU. http://www.arctic-cooling.com/catalog/p ... 2_&mID=256

mkk · Post by **mkk** » Sat Sep 25, 2010 12:56 pm

Some cards ramp up the fan speed much quicker than they have to . You could try setting it manually to a reasonable level around 20-30% and see what the temperatures end up at while gaming. If you use the side vent on that case then the card shouldn't have a problem with 20% fan speed.