Quiet Fan

Hey, I'm look for a good wuality fan for my AMD 2000+ XP. My current fan is TREMENDOUSLY loud (50 dcb or so) I'm not interested in overclocking really. all I want is something quiet, this thing sounds like a screaming eagle. any help would be great. rock on!

-FlashX-

The cheap route is to use a Radioshack 25 ohm rheostat to slow it down when you're not doing heavy computing. You can get a ready made one at www.crazypc.com.

Another alternative is to use an 80 to 60 adapter and an 80 cm fan. www.crazypc.com or www.heatsinkfactory.com are sources.

You could also buy an adjustable speed fan. I use Enermax adjustable 80 mm fans quite a lot and I love em. There only $9 at newegg.com and they come with a fan grill. Set to their slowest speed, they're almost inaudible. The only fan I've ever used that is quieter is the "Silencer" from PC Power and Cooling, also a great fan, but it's not adjustable.

Well, I know you just want a fan, but I have to say it anyway.

Watercooling. Its not silent, but a slow Panaflo 120 going across a radiator is pretty close to being silent.

Thats what I have anyway, and compared to what I had before, its much better. Now my power supply is the loudest of them all.

Reducing fan speed is a great low cost alternative. Paniflow L1 are a good/quieter replacement, but if you don't mind spending the cash, and want a great high quality fan, go papst. Have the papst 80mm fan (ngl) in my system. You could always get the 80mm ngm if you need more cfm, and it is as quiet as the L1, and made a hole lot better. These fans are built like tanks compared to normal fans.

As far as quieting a hole system goes, replace all your fans with the 12dba papst, huh, wonder if a water cooling rig is this quiet. I'll have to find out, something around 12dba would be hard to beat.