Best FAN to cool my XP 1600+

[gas-man]

Hello all,

I'm new to the board and have been long searching a solution to my heat problems. Here is my system:

Asus A7A-266
AMD Athlon XP 1600+
Geforce2 GTS 64mb DDR
655mb ram

Anywho, I've tried two fans on my CPU: The Globalwin FOP38 and the Thermaltake Dragon Orb 3. I switched to the Dragon Orb after discovering it was the same stats as the FOP, but quieter. My system still ran hot. Here's what I've done - cut out the perfs in the chasis of my case and mounted two powerful fans - front sucking back blowing. Also added a blow hole in the top with a fan. I've also got both the covers of my case off. Right now with the Dragon Orb 3 my cpu idles around 42 Celsius or so and full load it can get up to mid 50's.

What I am currently considering is a Volcano 7, with its large CFM rating it seems like a good fan, what do you guys think? My system now is very loud, and I wish it could be quiter. Its loud because of the two powerful fans and the Dragon Orb. Water cooling is not an option, sadly, so a fan will have to do.

What do you guys think? Is the Volcano 7 worth it?

Thanks so much

[gas-man]

I should also mention that my computer desk has a cabinet for the computer with a door at the front. If I close the door, idle goes up to about 49, with the door open it drops to 42-44. Obviously better to keep the door open, but its so damn loud....

Thanks again

[Kendle666]

well guy, it all depends on what ya want to spend and if ya want to "close" that door on yer computer desk:D ....................1) an Alpha pal 8045 will cost ya about $50 USD with a fan ...............it and the swifttek 462 are about the same in cooling ..................but it ya want REAL cooling ya need to go water cooling


by the way my Alpha Pal 8045 keeps my duron 1ghz @1.2Ghz arround 36c at load

[gas-man]

Hey thanks for the reply.

Cost really isn't a problem for me, what I want is The best cooling with the least amount of noise. However, as I said, water cooling isn't available (not my decision) as an option.

So what I'm looking for is the best fan for quiet cooling. Right now my case is probably around 60-70db and it's really bugging me. My bro's dual P3800 never go over 25C and they're damn quiet.

So, what I'm looking for is a quiet fan, which cools well. Maybe this is redundant, but I'm here to learn from you guys.

I wouldn't mind a loud fan so much I suppose, if it were a low noise, not a squeeling spin sound like the FOP-38

Thanks again

[Thelemac]

Best bet for cooling/noise performance is the Glaciator (http://www.millennium-thermal.com). Very quiet, very good performance. Not that hard on the wallet, either.

As a couple of other suggestions, try reversing the fans in your case, so that the one closest to the CPU is blowing into the case and the one in front is blowing out. Unless you have one fan taht is more powerful than the others, get rid of the fan in the top...that'll just mess up your airflow. Put the covers back on and see where your temps are.

I'm also gonna stick this in cooling for you, cause you'll probably get some other really good responses there. :)

[gas-man]

Thanks a lot, but really does the fan in the top mess things up? Its blowing out of the case, shouldn't that help, not cause problems?

Maybe I'm stupid at this, what is the most important thing in cooling? CFM? Heat-sync? I guess I haven't been really reasearching fully.

Thanks a lot for the replies guys, really appreciate it

[UserName]

firstly flip the fan by the CPU around so it blows INTO the case and flip the one on the front to blow OUT.
That will get you 3C

If i understand you this is in a piece of furniture? does the cabnet have a back on it? How does fresh air get into the cabnet with the door closed?

If you can't get fresh air into the cabnet the HS and Fan don't matter

[cjlax5]

i think the heatsink and fan are about equal in importance. cant get good results without a good either one, but i guess the heatsink is a little bit more important. go with the glaciator II.

Good luck

[gas-man]

Thanks guys,

The computer is in my desk, its a computer desk with a compartment for the tower. There is a door on the front, and about half the back is open to allow cables etc.

If I reverse the fans, the hot air will blow into a closed door, or should I leave it open? I hate to because of the noise.

As for the Glaciators, I notice they are a much lower CFM rating than my other 2 fans (about 10 cfm). Are they really better than the Dragon Orb 3 or FOP38?

Also, how important is cleaning up cables, wrapping them all up into one round tube and such?
And what role does Arctic Silver play?

Thanks again guys

[UserName]

you got a funny problem with that cabnet.

can you open more of the back up?

yess the fans will blow hot air into the door, but more importantly the rear fan will blow cold air over the heat sink.

[x94blair3]

Not sure it's what you're looking for, but this is what I went from.

A global heatsink with a very whiny shrill 60mm fan to a swiftech mx462 heatsink with a sunon 80mm fan. I dropped from 47-52(max load) to 37-42(max load). It's a little noisy (I have 2 came with the box antec fans in the top pulling out, and two more of the sunon fans in the bottom blowing in.

I don't have any way to measure the decibils, but I can't imagine it would be any noisier than yours. It's at least no "whiny" any more.

If you want to check the fans out (for noise) you can go here and actually listen to them:

http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/tecar.html

The fan is the sunon 80mm ultra high speed. As I said between the heatsink and two front fans I bought three of them. And the swiftech. All from that site. They give great service and answered a bunch of questions too for what it's worth.

Hope this helps.

[gas-man]

The cab is like this, if the door is open, and you're looking through, the far back, very right, there is a section that is open that is not quite as wide as the tower, but taller. I think its open enough for air flow.

Thing is is it traps hot air, with cab door open, idle is around 42 (that's with the window open in winter and the ceiling fan on full blast). With it closed, its around 49.

I just reversed my fans, the front blowing out and the back blowing in. I use HMonitor for temps and before doing this I was at 49 with the cab shut. Now its still 49 with the cab shut, no change with switching the fans.

I did not take out my port hole fan because I don't really understand how that would help, since the fan is blowing air up and out of the case...someone correct me.

[gas-man]

Scratch that, reversing the fans caused temp to rise to 51C, a 2 degree increase than prior config.

[gas-man]

I think I'll start a new topic to branch out because clearly my problem is not just with my cpu fan, thanks guys

[f155mph]

The key to good cooling is having good air flow. So if you can take the door off your desk. If you want the best cooling I would go with the swiftech MCX462 and put a rheostat on the fan so you can adjust the speed. Hence noice will go down.

[Lou Natic]

I have a few similar questions, but this is for my XP 1900+ on a Soyo Dragon + mobo.

1) I have a Antec SX830 case with great ventilation. I have the 2 fan slots up front filled and the 2 back filled in a suck/blow configuration, along with the 2 fans in the Enermax 465w PSU. My mobo is at a constant 32c, but my CPU is around 48c IDLE. I know the stock HSF that comes with the Athlon is junk, but I didn't know it's only alittle better than no HSF at all. After shopping around locally in Austin Tx, I found 2 possible buys. The first being a Coolermaster HHC-001 they have in stock, or a Swiftech MCX462 they would have to order. Out of the box, which HSF is a better buy? I'm not concerned with noise, the other 6 fans are bound to drown-out the addition of one more. Also, which one actually requires that I lap it? I don't want to drop the dough on a HSF and screw it up. And, are they able to fit on my mobo without too much fuss (no transistors or diodes in the way)?

2) If I get one of these heavy HSFs, is it a good idea to get a shim? If so, any special thing I should look for, like material used or whatever.

3) Say I wanted to get alittle extra cooling on the northbridge chip, would reseating it with some Artic Silver or replacing it completely be better? If I were to replace said fan, what type would you suggest?

Any suggestions?

[x94blair3]

I just bought the mx462. I got great results. I would recommend that. I was going to get a shim, but the place I referred to in the earlier part of the thread said he'd sell me one but I don't need it with the mx462. Hope this helps.

[UserName]

i would switch both your rear case fans to blow int the case and both your front fans to blow out of the case

that will get you 3C at least

[Lou Natic]

I would try that, but since the direction the PSU fans are fixed, it would create a wierd system flow. I'm affraid it would cause enough churning that the air would never circulate.

Ofcourse I reserve the right to be completely wrong about this.

[dream caster]

I think you could use the coolermaster heatpipe heatsink (CoolerMaster HHC001)and use two low noise fans over it directly connected to a side opening just over the CPU, also make a division parallel to motherboard so heatsink exits air beneath it and connect that to two fans of the same class exiting air in the back.

you have to make an adapter for the two input fans and have a division between them and that division should go just to the heat sink because if you don't do it, turbulence from mixing two swirling air currents will kill flow.

Plycon sells 80mm Pabst fans rated 12db and 19.5CFM, I have not looked up max presure rating but if you have four of them I don't think probable it won't be enough, also there are some 60mm Panaflo rated at 24db (much louder)around 16CFM that have a max pressure of 30 (this is good if you are going to use an adapter).

If you make acrilyc divisions it would look sweet.

[samoth]

...after reading the thread I wonna pick up a question mentioned by gas-man in his first post: does anybody have any experience with the Volcano 7? (e.g. on a Gigabyte 7VTXH mobo...)?

I'd appreciate any comments.

[dream caster]

Kept thinking and searching and now,
while i maintain my general suggestion I have found that the Alpha PAL 8045 would be better probably as it is bigger so is easier to fit those two 80 or 60mm fans not only mechanichally but for good airflow. I'm convinced now that performance won't suffer much from blowing in instead of sucking and their efficiency is about equal

[Arkaine23]

Gas man: The reason your top blowhole is not very helpful is that it unbalances your airflow. You want to have about the same cfm (cubic feet of air per minute) going into your case as going out. Also, the hot air is at least partially trapped in that cabinet. A Glaciator 2 would be a great HSF, but no matter what HSF you use, getting cool air to it is vital, or it just won't perform the way it needs to. With your rear fan blowing in, it is probably fighting with the PSU's fan. If you construct a duct for the cool air so that it goes directly to the HSF that'll help. (Try cutting up a large plastic cup, or make one from a cereal box a duct tape.) Arctic Silver helps transfer heat from the processor to the heatsink base. A very thin layer helps by filling in the micro-gaps on the surfaces so joined. Silver has a very high thermal conductivity, better even than copper.

I have the Volcano 7 and it works pretty well, though I did have to help it some. My temps are in my sig, but they're from MBM, and probably hotter by a few degrees b/c of inaccuracy. I have good airflow... 2 side blowholes both intake, one ducted to the Volcano 7, 1 front intake fan, 1 rear exhaust fan plus 2 fans in my PSU exhausting air. The Volcano 7 has been modded to run at full speed instead of using it's variable fan-speed temperature sensor. I love the V7's 80mm fan though, at 53cfm. It'd be a great case fan.

However, I want to get my cpu higher, so I just ordered Artic Silver 3, a Glaciator 2, a slot cooler, and 2 YS Tech fans- a 60mm 40cfm (may or may not replace Glac's stock fan with this) and a 92mm 66cfm (will use for duct to HSF). When they come, I'm gonna unlock my XP, volt mod my AK31, and see what the new setup gets me.

[rivercom9]

What about the Silverado Noise Control if price isnt an issue. If it is, I suggest the Glaciator II.

[Arkaine23]

Lou:

Where are you shopping for computer stuff? Fry's?

Northbridge... if you have a hacksaw, you could get a P2 heatsink and chop it to size. Then put a 40mm fan on it. Attach with thermal adhesive or with ASII plus a drop of superglue on 2 corners. This is the less than $5 solution. Goodwill has the parts (near the Dell factory Outlet on 183). Fans and heatsinks are like $.50 - $1.00 there.

Other options- Blorb, Corb, or similar. Might need a little cutting to get it to fit.

Thermaltake Tiger... saw it on www.thermaltake.com Don't know how it performs. $10 + shipping unless you can find it locally.

Lapping is laborious, but it's pretty hard to mess it up.

PM me since I'm nearby. Maybe I could help you out with some spare parts, or some mods. Also, put you specs in your sig. That'll make it easier for ppl on the forums to help you if you have questions.