Page 1 of Silent cpu/cooling solutions ?? ---- MILO :) ---- Warning, large pics within :)

looking for some decent but cheap(ish) cooling solutions for my main pc, this weather has been playing havoc with it`s temp :( so i`m looking at changing the "stock" cooler that came with the XP3500 chip & upgrading it to something a bit more silent & efficient. this is what needs "direct" cooling.

4 sata hard discs (each has the space of one blank hard drive bay above & below) i`m probably gonna get a 120mm fan & mount it just behind the front facia of the case, that way it`ll extract the heat away from the drives.
the cpu,

MIlo, is this the AMD version of the cooler you use for your intel ? :)

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=013&item=230012340651&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&rd=1 ?
if so how would you rate it ? any other suggestions around the same price mark would be greatfully recieved :)

then to help the airflow inside the case i`ll swap the ide ribbon cables for the round type & add another internal case fan (thermaltake 80mm) & run them through a controller.

i`m making all this up as i go along, because tbh i`ve never really given case temp/noise much thought, so if i`m going wrong anywhere please feel free to put me right :D


as always, thanks for any help & advice :)

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It`s like Stephen Hawkins Vs the Speaking clock.....

You are superior to us in only one way.........You You are Better at Dying....

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This item was edited on Tuesday, 1st August 2006, 13:44

Hi Chris

Yes that`s the AMD version of the one I have.
Its not bad...couldn`t say if it was any better than the other AMD one I gave you since I`d need to do a direct side-by-side comparison.
That one I had before (which you`re now using) was very very quiet compared to all others I`d owned...was even better when compared to the Zalman `silent` one I had before that.

The nice thing about the Freezer Pro 7 is the way you can mount it so that the fan blows the hot air straight out the back of the case (to the case mounted fan anyway).
Also, its speed is controlled by the motherboard, so when it gets hot or the CPU is under full load it speeds up.


A few things to consider..
1) Acoustic matting
I used some of this on the old case before buying the Antec Sonata case (which I`m currently using). Basically, some cases are made out of thin aluminium, and so vibrate a lot, which makes a lot of noise. One way to reduce this is to use acoustic matting which can be cut to match your case and reduces vibrations...however, it can also increase the heat.

2) Fan sizes...
The bigger the fan, the slower it has to turn (since it shifts more air per turn), the less noise it makes. My Antec case uses a 120mm fan at the back which turns at about 1200rpm...very quiet.
Consider trying to put a bigger fan in. Its relatively easy to do if there`s space, just need a drill/Dremel to make the holes for screws/airflow. Sometimes removing the back of the case where the fan holes are and using a fan guard instead can help increas airflow.

3) Fan controller
Get a little front-mounted fan controller so you can set the case fan(s) speed. The fan mounted in front of the hard drives doesn`t need to go that fast at all.

Check out www.silentpcreview.com/ for some good advice on PC bits.

Miles
PS - how hot is the CPU getting?
Since mine is running 55 degrees idle now (although I don`t trust these motherboard readings since it says its 40 degrees inside the case, and when I put my hand in there, there`s no way its that!

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This item was edited on Sunday, 30th July 2006, 16:42

cheers milo :)

PS - how hot is the CPU getting?

using a temp gauge i put under the heatsink the area directly next to the xp3000 is around 40 degree`s, btu thats in the micro pc, & i`m perfectly happy with the way thats running :) & it`s almost silent.

it`s my main pc thats giving me grief, the core temp is showing up as 58 degree`s (tho i have a large fan on it at the moment so it`s dropped to 35 degree`s) i would have used the one you gave me on the main system but the fan mounts are different on socket 939 boards :(

i`ve got a bid in on this http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=016&item=260012233662&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEBI%3AIT&rd=1
but i doubt i`ll get it as i`m not prepared to bid any higher than it`s at now, so i`ll probably get the arctic cooler later tonight.

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It`s like Stephen Hawkins Vs the Speaking clock.....

You are superior to us in only one way.........You You are Better at Dying....

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I thought I`d jump on this thread as I think I`m having similar problems. Now I`m no PC guru, but I`m pretty sure I need to cool my PC down somehow as after a couple of minutes it switches itself off! I have an AMD processor and its running at temperatures averaging 60-70 degrees, which to me seems way too hot. I`ve removed the fan cleaned it out and put thermal paste on my processor but it still makes no difference. Can you recommend what else I need to do? A bigger fan maybe? I hope I`ve not fried my processor!!!

I have an AMD processor and its running at temperatures averaging 60-70 degrees, which to me seems way too hot.

it is way way to hot, has this just started happening or has it been a problem for a while ? also what speed/type is the cpu, i`m assuming your not overclocking it ?

also if you could post a pic of the inside of the case it might help us to see the airflow/convection..

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It`s like Stephen Hawkins Vs the Speaking clock.....

You are superior to us in only one way.........You You are Better at Dying....

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This item was edited on Monday, 31st July 2006, 17:53

Chris, the Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro is a fantastic cooler for the price. It is up there with a Zalman costing nearly twice as much although at full speed it is noisy. However at half speed it is virtually silent and still keeps my AMD 64 3500 below 45 degrees C. There are many reviews on the internet praising this cooler.

I had the problem a while ago, but sorted by cleaning all the muck out of the fan. Now the problem is back although my fan is ok. I have an AMD 2500 and am pretty sure I`m not overclocking it. It`s running at around 1500mhz I think. I`ll try and post a pic shortly. Cheers.

cheers guys :) i actualy got the Asetek Vapochill micro "extreme" that i linked to, but aparently it`s fairly noisy, i`ve changing the case over tomorrow, i`m going back to the gladiater case, mainly because it`s got a 120mm fan right in the front grill so it should help with cooling the hard drives. so hopefully the cpu cooler will come tomorrow as well & i can let you know how i go on with it :)

one more swift question for mike tho :) i notice there a a few motherboards coming out with 6 or more sata conections, is there any one in particular that you would recomend ? the more sata controllers the better for me, as i`m allready using all four on my current msi mobo, & when i go dual core (the conroe type) i`ll need room for expantion as all the drives are nearly full :( & as eventually my "main" system will be connected to most of the rooms in the house serving tv/video over the network, i`ll probably never have enough storage :)

EDIT= btw, this is the case i`m thinking of using on my next build, http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=437051
tbh i think it`s a bit of a pig, but as the room my pc`s in is pretty tiny, those larger fans when coupled with a speed control will "hopefully" cut down on the noise, the only thing i really hate about it is the door effigy that covers the optical drive bays,,,,, it`s a bug bear of mine, but they just seem so unnecessary :/ the only other thing putting me off is the price :¦

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It`s like Stephen Hawkins Vs the Speaking clock.....

You are superior to us in only one way.........You You are Better at Dying....

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This item was edited on Monday, 31st July 2006, 17:57

You could turn on Cool n Quiet in the bios, and select Max battery, i think Portable/laptop might do it too, in the power section of the Control Panel.

What that`ll do is to slow down, and reduce the voltage, to the processor when you don`t need it - When it`s idling etc..

My Dual core Opteron 165 runs at 35C, with cool and quiet enabled, at idle, and 45ishC without it(you have to use a seperate application with the opteron to change it`s power state). And that`s with a Arctic 64 cooler too.

Chris, if you want 6 or more SATA connectors then you need a motherboard with 2 SATA controllers. An example is an nForce4 motherboard which has 4 in SAT controllers controlled by the nForce 4 chipset but it could have a second controller provided by Marvell Yukon, for example, giving another 4 SATA controllers (the Marvell Yukon option actually gives better performance).

As the Core 2 Duo processors are so new at the moment I have no experience of any boards that takes this processor and supports dual SATA controllers. All I would be doing would be searching MicroDirect, Dabs, etc which is probably what you will be doing too so I cannot really give advice as to why one board might be more beneficial than another. If you do find a board I can take a look at it and only give an opinion from the information given though. It will be at least a couple of months before I will get to try different boards for the Core 2 Duo.

By the way, I am still seething at buying the D940 a couple of months ago!