Quiet Fan Upgrade for Athlon 64

[truepusk]

My new i5 760 is very quiet. My old Athlon 64 3200+ probably(?) outputs a lot more heat and requires more CFM. After all these years, it's time to spend a few bucks to reduce the sound. But I do have to be aware of the potentially greater heat concerns.

What I Have:

• Athlon XP 3200
• HS Thermalright XP 120
• A Globe Fan on the CPU (No, not really the right Globe, I don't believe - I bought the wrong, loud kind, as documented in this thread
• Lian Li PC V10000 Case
• 2xStock Case Fans, 1 in, 1 Out (120mm)
• Radeon X800XL w/ After market Zalman Fan VF700 (already worked on quieting that many years ago)
• Seasonic Super Tornado 300 W PSU
• 2 HDD (80GB, 750GB Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM)

Click to see a bigger picture. Lower left by the HDDs is the intake.


My Plan

• Scythe SY1225SL12M 120mm "Slipstream" For the CPU. Keep in mind that w/ Cool N Quiet and the ASUS MoBo controller this should automatically be undervolted when appropriate.
• S-Flex E, undervolted, on the front HDD intake fan. The D can have some clicking noises and this seems to be the fan I hear the most. I don't think I will need as much power on the HDD, although I could be wrong - it's possible I would have some HDD over heating issues. There is no adaptive control on this fan.
• S-Flex E, on the rear intake - yes, I am using the rear fan as an intake. It seems to give cooler temps since the front intake doesn't seem to cool the main compartment much (the HDD area is so separated). Again, keep in mind that w/ Cool N Quiet and the ASUS MoBo controller this should automatically be undervolted when appropriate.

I suppose I'm going to have to verify that these are all compatible with my fan ports on my MoBo, especially if I want to use the built in MoBo fan scaling. Let me know if you have any thoughts! I'm a bit of a noob in this realm.

[Fire-Flare]

It's not hard to change fans on old AMD coolers, they used standard 60 or 70 millimeter fans. It's just a simple matter of grabbing a screwdriver and swapping them with a quieter model with good airflow.

Alternatively, you can usually mount a modern AM3 cooler on the AM2 or AM2+ processor because the mounting mechanism and physical dimensions of the CPU are unchanged.

[speedkar9]

Alternatively, you can usually mount a modern AM3 cooler on the AM2 or AM2+ processor because the mounting mechanism and physical dimensions of the CPU are unchanged.

True if the OP is running an A64 Socket 754/939/AM2 as the title of the thread suggests. However if your using an Athlon XP (Socket A), not many coolers are left on the market.

Before fan swapping, check that your motherboard has 4PIN PWM fan connectors if your using PWM fans, or 3PIN connectors if your using voltage control.

From the picture it seems like you might have enough 5.25" bays to rig up some basic HD suspension, clearing the bottom section of the case for airflow for the PSU, and possibly negating the need for a front intake fan. I don't know how ventilated the bottom of the PSU chamber is, consider opening up some more holes for the PSU to breathe. Tidying up with wires also helps with airflow, for more efficient cooling and less noise.

PS: Three new fans @ $10 each... hmm that might be worth more than the computer!

[jhhoffma]

Most of your current hardware is fine. You might consider using low speed Slipstreams instead of the S-Flex's as an alternative.

What you are proposing to do is build a positive pressure system, which is fine, give a few caveats.

You are forcing cool air to specific spots instead of removing hot air from specific spots. In order to be most effective, you need to make sure the cool intake air goes most directly to the place that can most effectively use it (CPU and GPU specifically). Also, judging by your picture, you will need to address your dust problem. Adding filters to your intakes will keep your intake air clean, and since you will have positive pressure inside the case, the outgoing air will exit from every other open vent keeping dust from entering there.

A negative pressure case will do the opposite, by removing air from general areas where heat can build up (top of the case, usually near the CPU) and intaking air from everywhere else, you can be more efficient with less directed airflow (i.e. fans), but you have the issue of dust coming in from every nook and cranny.

Also, since your HDD chamber is separated, you might consider trying to completely isolate the airflow in that area. Even a slight amount of airflow (like a slow moving fan from a PSU) would be enough to keep a single HDD cool, if there are no other components to cool. Ditch the other HDD. Then you can address the main chamber separately.

[truepusk]

Cool, thanks for all the help, guys!

I bought an SFLEX D and E (1 each from www.directron.com which had the best deals). I bought the slipstream I mentioned for the CPU from in store pickup at Microcenter.

My major takeaway is that not much cooling is needed on the front. I do want 2 HDDs in here, at least for now, but I'm going to try going even quieter on the front and under-volting the D for a hopefully very quiet low airstream.

I will stick with the stock heat sink for now, but yes, it is a 939, so it would be compatible. I'm trying to get the noise down to a reasonably level without spending too much, so I'll keep it in mind if I need to consider it for additional quieting. The heat sink I have was always highly rated back in the day.

Maybe the slipstreams would be good to consider for the case fans as well - I just stuck with the S-Flex options because I looked at the extensive tests done by SPCR and they seemed like the best option.

Also, thank you very much jhhoffma for the helpful info on positive/negative pressure and dust. This Lian Li case is largely open on the outside, but it's good to know that with the current configuration in theory I only need to filter the intakes. One of them already is (the front intake cane with a filter on the case). I might consider getting a filter for the rear intake, although I don't have much space with the CPU HSF being so large near buy. I didn't know you could buy separate filter modules so maybe I'll look around and see what I can find.

[truepusk]

I installed the fans and it seems to be a smashing success. It's ridiculously quieter.

The front HDD fan used to be the loudest (especially because it's on the front). The S-FLEX D is so quiet that I don't plan on needing to under volt it. There is a noticeable pitch that is a little irritating coming from one of the other two fans (the S-FLEX E or the SY1225SL12M). I haven't bothered to isolate it yet. I'm pretty happy with the noise level in general. It's like night and day.

Temps so far seem to be about the same, maybe even a little lower. Maybe the hard drive temps are a little higher - remains to be seen.

[truepusk]

I like the idea of putting a filter on the back fan. Any recommendations? I see a lot out there, on newegg and just in general google product search.

[Fire-Flare]

I like the idea of putting a filter on the back fan. Any recommendations? I see a lot out there, on newegg and just in general google product search.

Try taping a Swiffer pad in there, they trap dust better.

[truepusk]

Okay, the noise is coming from the S-FLEX E (hmmm.... I thought the SPCR reviews of the fans were really only concerned about noise on the Ds, but maybe their focus was mostly undervolting). I think I might pick up another SY1225SL12M to replace it. It would get rid of any tonal noise and just leave me with a white noise woosh, I hope.

LOL, I don't know about a swiffer pad - I would think that would totally kill my airflow. I really like the filter my ancient (6 year old?) Lian Li case has on the front. It's thick but very porous - not sure what it's made out of.

[honey123]

It is observed that most of the times such noise is created by the dust only. I had the same experience and I cleaned everything when I knew the reason. It is really difficult to get rid of the noise when the dust has not been removed from years together. But now I have got many other check points to lower the noise and I will try to fix the same too. Hope I will learn more on this topic here.

[truepusk]

It is observed that most of the times such noise is created by the dust only. I had the same experience and I cleaned everything when I knew the reason. It is really difficult to get rid of the noise when the dust has not been removed from years together. But now I have got many other check points to lower the noise and I will try to fix the same too. Hope I will learn more on this topic here.

You are seriously telling me that the noise is created by the dust? Excuse me if I am extremely skeptical, but maybe others will back you up. I can't imagine how that could feasibly be the case.

[Fire-Flare]

It is observed that most of the times such noise is created by the dust only. I had the same experience and I cleaned everything when I knew the reason. It is really difficult to get rid of the noise when the dust has not been removed from years together. But now I have got many other check points to lower the noise and I will try to fix the same too. Hope I will learn more on this topic here.

You are seriously telling me that the noise is created by the dust? Excuse me if I am extremely skeptical, but maybe others will back you up. I can't imagine how that could feasibly be the case.

Dust acts like as an insulator, when it accumulates on or inside components it makes it harder for the air around them to cool what's beneath the 'blanket'. So the fans spin faster.

[truepusk]

okay good, so no one is actuallu claiming the dust creates the noise, just that it impacts the cooling problem. I got a filter from newegg I'll put on the back when the new fan comes.