SPCR

Right now I have an SFlex 1600 running full speed on my Megahalems and I don't like the noise characteristic. Any recommendations for a quieter fan that will still push about the same amount of air?

Thanks for your time

Any suggestions?

Anything pushing that amount of air is going to be noisy. Are you sure you need that much airflow? If you drop down to around 1000rpm, a Nexus fan would be pretty good, or even a 1200rpm Slipstream. I still think these would be too noisy, but they would definitely be quieter than an S-Flex at 1600. Of course, you could always undervolt your existing S-Flex and get a similar effect...

I heard the Gentle Typhoons are pretty darn quiet/emit a pleasant tone all the way up to 1500rpm?

Perhaps consider 2 x lower rpm fans in a push/pull configuration? I don't know how that will go with an OC'd i7 920 though...

Btw, I noticed your sig says you've got a 5870. Out of interest, how is the noise from that?

I'm considering an X58 / i7 920 or P55 / i7 860 and a 5870 upgrade to my gaming system myself, so I'd be interested in your experiences with the noise level. Or is the S-Flex 1600 pretty much the dominating noise in your system?

The 5870 is silent when not in a game, the fan runs at 1% speed. During gaming I can't hear it over the 1600 SFLEX

I guess I'll try a 1200 Slipstream on the Megahalems and hope the fins are space far enough apart so as not to need that much static pressure.

Just waiting for your results with your Megahalems + SlipStream 1200 as in a few weeks this can also be my config in the new system I'm going to build (Core i7 920 + Ati HD5850).

You joined in '03 and are asking this question?

Just try running your fan at 5v off the powersupply instead of plugged in to the motherboard. No new fan purchase necessary. http://jab-tech.com/ will have the wiring available if you need to pick up some.

Just use CoreTemp or some such to watch your temperature. Set up logging, game or benchmark for a bit, then check the logs for the max temp. Should be plenty of information on this on the overclocking sites of you're just getting started in the wonderful world of OCing.

You may want to look around for some aftermarket (e.g. Thermalright or AcrticCooling) cooling solutions for your vid. I have a Accelero S1 with a Slipstream 800rpm @ 6v on my 8800GT. Dead quiet and sufficiently cooled. Could crank the fan up and OC big time, but will just upgrade to a current gen vid when the time comes.

I ran tests on my i920 on two different OC levels with the Megahalems and the Slipstream 1900rpm fan, in both push and push/pull modes, and at 1200rpm, 1600rpm and 1900rpm, using both Intel Burn Test and Prime95.

On the 3.3 OC, I found that push/pull was about 3C cooler than push, and 1200rpm was about 3C warmer than 1900rpm

On the 3.8 OC, I found that push/pull only offered an advantage at 1200rpm, and that the other speeds were cooler in just push by a degree or two. The difference between 1900rpm and 1200rpm was 2C for push/pull and 4C for push only.

Based on these results, I'm running just a push Slipstream at 1600rpm, as CPU cooling silence isn't of paramount importance for a system with two 275GTX GPUs.