Looking for a quiet PC cooling solution

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Hey.

I have a Prescott P4, which makes so much noise it's driving me on the borders of insanity. I'm looking for a more efficient, and most of all *QUIET!!!* way to keep this damn processor running cool.

Before I am tempted to caress that damn PC with my baseball bat, do any of you got an effective way to solve my problem? I'm on a tight budget, so water cooling is out of the picture.

 

Not sure if these will help... they claim to be quiet and are cheap:

http://www.directron.com/quietfans.html

Tomorrow, I'll get you information on the fan I have. It is very quiet, I think (not silent, but it is not too bad), but I'm not sure of the cost - I'll ask my friend who made my computer.

 

DotW, my boy, you're in luck. I just so happen to know a lot of how to silence noisy computers.

You basically have 4 choices.

• replace all fans with "silent" fans. Then hook those fans up to a "multi-function panel" (just make sure it has a fan control feature)
• You can install a sound dampening mat (the more surfaces you cover on the inside of the case, the quieter it will be)
• Install a fan-less water cooling system
• Do a combination of all three!

If your budget allows, I would do the above, and get two fans (1 for the intake, 1 for exhaust), and hook them up to a multi-function panel that has software to control the fan speed according to inside temperatures.

 

I really like Papst fans for keeping my computer cool and quiet. They're a "bit" expensive though.

 

Great, interesting solutions here, Kitrax. That damn Prescott is driving me on the verges of insanity. While sniffing aruond the web looking for cooling solutions, I stumbled upon Zalman cooling solutions. They offer big, pure copper cooling fans. Is it really worth it?

Never heard of those.

 

Pure copper heatsinks are fantastic. Pure copper fans are overkill IMO, unless you're overclocking your system like crazy (something I definitely do NOT recommend doing with a Prescott).

Really the best solution would be water-cooling. Failing that, a good copper heatsink with a low-noise fan is as good as it gets. You've got to be ready to pay for it though - both copper sinks and quiet fans are significantly more expensive than the "normal" stuff.

 

I tore out the chipset fan and replaced it with some large cooling ribs (think is was Zalman). That alone helped a lot on my computer, but do some research on it before you do it (your chipset might be better and more power consuming than mine ).

 

Zalman is good if you like the look of a "blooming flower" for a heatsink. Seriously though, Zalman makes the fan-less water cooling system I linked to above, and they are renowned for producing quiet cooling products.

I'd suggest you take a look at Mod the Box. They have a lot of good reviews on heatsinks, fans, and water cooling systems.

 

@ Disciple,

I use Zalman heat sincs almost exclusively (I've even converted a few nay-sayers). I put my old one on my mom's computer when I built it for her, and you literally can't tell the computer's on unless you put your head down next to it to listen. The ceiling fan in the room actually drowns it out, in fact. They look goofy, but they work like a charm. They're very reasobaly priced, too.

Her processor is an AMD Athlon XP 1.6ghz, which runs much hotter than the average P4 chip, and it cools it just fine. You shouldn't have any issues.

Edit: This is the P4 version on the same heat sinc I have on my rig right now, and it's $10 cheaper than the one I bought a year ago. Check your motherboard's socket model to be sure, but this should do the trick. The only downside is it takes up about 2.5 times as much space inside as a regular heat sinc, but at least it's vertical (so it doesn't block any PCI slots).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835118103

 

My own P4 is a Prescott 2.8, I think it's a socket 478.

I did a quick check of my case, and I'm kinda tight on space... are the Zalman heatsinks much bigger than your stock Intel ones? I have a couple inches of clearance for all sides, except the upper side, which is like an inch under the PSU, and the underside, for which I don't have even an inch of clearance because of the heatsink of the north bridge... it's looking bad...

 

Here's the thing: If your processor is laying paralell to the ground, the heatsinc takes space UPWARD. How this particular model works is, you attach the copper fan-looking thing to the actual processor. That distributes the heat from the processor. Then you attach the actual motorised fan, which hovers about a half inch over the copper. The motorised fan is attached by screws in the same screw holes where you fasten in your PCI cards (soundcard, modem, etc.). So the only thing that should get in the way here are the large power cables.

My mother's case is one of the smaller ones, too - and it fits in there just fine. I think you'll be fine.

 

That sounds like a pretty good choice. I was, however, more looking into something like that, because a guy at my school had one of those fans on his Athlon X2, and if I didn't seen the fan move, I wouldn't have guesses it was running. What about this one? Is it better than the other one you suggested me, DR? Or would it be simply overkill?

 

I've tried that model - I returned it about a week later, not sure why - it's been a while. I've heard that model is a little more fragile than the one I suggested. Makes sense, since the coils and the fan are attached to each other. It was a little noisier than the one I recommended, but it's a small difference. You could always get both, and send one back (but that's a pain). Provided your specs match up, I personally would go with the one recommended above. But I think you'd be fine with either one.

That's just my experience, though. You've seen one in action on your friend's machine...if that's quiet enough for you, then go for it.

Edit: Actually, now that I'm thinking about it - I think I remember now. I think the reason I returned that model was because it wouldn't fit in my case. As a one-piece unit, it was considerably wider on all sides, IIRC, so it didn't fit as well and the coils were touching something. It had more to do with where the chip was on the motherboard than anything (and I wasn't willing to get a new motherboard).

 

Well, I got the Zalman pure copper fan (the big round one), and I installed it today. Bloody hell, it makes one hell of a difference! It's still a bit noisy, but it's FAR less worst than it was with my stock Intel heatsink, the very same heatsink I nearly thrown out by the window.

Thank you, Zalman, for your high-quality and most of all, quiet cooling solution. I can finally endure my P4 until I scrape enough dough to switch to an Athlon X2.

 

Happy computing.

 

oh man, i see the post late.

Zalman is good. i have been using zalman reserator for 8 months. That thing is fanlessm thus no noise, at all.

the good,
no noise. No need to use special made coolet, just ordinary distilled water + anti corrosion liquid.

the bad,
damn big, damn heavy. If environment (room temperature) gets hot, the performance goes down, because it is a passive system.

Also,
i connect cpu fan to replace one of power unit fan so that i can control the fan speed thus reducing some noise too.

 

Yeah, I've had an all copper Zalman for a bit over a year now, the case fans and my HDD and optical drives make a huge amount of noise in comparison to the Zalman (even when on max power).

 

Time for revival, especially if Kitrax is around. Now the proud owner of a "new" Prescott is yours truly. My box is a solid iron one from Codegen with no holes and a 350 Watt stock power supply. My mobo (Abit IS7E) supports Prescott but wasn't designed with its heavy sweating in mind so far as neighbouring components go.

I'm open to some expenses, but I just don't want to spend too much on it, to the point where just swapping mobo+proc+RAM+GFX for some dual core ddr2 PCI-e combo would have been more profitable. Basically, what's the best choice, within reason. Shelling the cash out and buying a new box with a side fan and tube and a back fan next to the proc and a front fan to help it all circulate well, plus an expensive cooler? Or just the cover? Or just the expensive new cooler (no matter how you look at it, Scythe Ninja or Thermaltake Big Typhoon is cheaper than any CPU cooler AND new box)? Or can I actually survive with my stock Celeron 2.4 GHz box cooler (just aluminium, no copper), perhaps with some case mod, like drilling a hole and putting am improvised tube through it?

 

I don't get a stock cooler because it's an OEM version... I have a box cooler but from a weaker Celeron 2.4 on the Northwood core... I'm sure it won't die from surfing around, but I'm not so sure it can handle 5 hours of NWN2 or something like that...