I've just aquired a PC that I've rebuilt for my eldest son to use, however the CPU cooling fan is quite small and therefore spins very fast making lots of noise.

It has an Intel Pentium D 805 Socket 775 2.66GHz 2MB Cache processor with the Heatsink & Fan that it was shipped with. dabs.com - Intel Pentium D 805 Socket 775 2.66GHz 2MB Cache Retail (BX80551PE2666FN)

What are your thoughts for making this a quiet as possible?

I was looking at this but as I've not tinkered with this sort of stuff for a long time i'm quite rusty on it. Zalman CPU cooler with 92mm quiet fan BT Shop - Zalman heatpipe CPU cooler with quiet 92mm PWM fan (CNPS9500AT)

Thanks

Matthew

Hi matey, i've got one of these on a Athlon X2 3800 clocked up to 2.5ghz a core.

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775)

More than capable of handling the temperatures, and relatively quiet for nearly a tenner less.

It is rather bulky though and may have a few clearence issues in a small case with side fans.

Usually clears most motherboards as it stands proud of most components.

If you want quiet then you need a 120mm fan not 92mm!

It also depends how much you price silence at really.

One of these would be uber quiet but at £50 its pretty pricey for a system of that spec and with no doubt other noisy components that will just ruine the silence any way.

Noctua NH-U12P CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/LGA775)

Another good one would be this:

Buy Scythe Andy Samurai SCASM-1000 from CCL - Online Retailer of the Year 2008, 2007 & 2006 for laptops, desktops and computer hardware

£32 and is better suited to older botherboards that don't have big heatskinks on everything as it is downward facing and will get some air circulating round the mobo.

Just have a look through this site:

Quiet PC UK - Quiet Intel CPU Coolers for a Quiet PC

Have bought from them before and the prices aren't bad really. All the coolers on that page will no doubt be quiter and cooler than the stock thing that came with it!

Phil

Zalmans are very nice but expensive, Arctic cooling kit is very good for the money. I've put them in a few machines with no problems,

Be careful if the PC case isn't all that big. Some of these coolers are huge so make sure they'll fit.

Some of these coolers are huge so make sure they'll fit.

Yup! Thats why I recomend the top-down scythe as it's possible that it's an older case that was never designed for big fans!

Had an Akasa jobby myself and it was very good indeed for what I paid.

In fact... I think I still have it somewhere come to think of it!

Think its an Akasa Evo 120.

I guessed the case was pretty wide, by matts choice of the zalman cooler.

Maybe not, my case fan fowls the tops of the heatpipes on my cooler. But two snips of one of the supports with the wire cutters sorted that out .

The artic cooler is just about inaudiable and i've volt modded my case fans to 7v.

Hi matey, i've got one of these on a Athlon X2 3800 clocked up to 2.5ghz a core.

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775)

More than capable of handling the temperatures, and relatively quiet for nearly a tenner less.

It is rather bulky though and may have a few clearence issues in a small case with side fans.

Usually clears most motherboards as it stands proud of most components.

Actually, I use this one and its very quiet and handles my overclocked Q6600 at 3.8GHZ without any problems. Great cooler and a bargain price to.

Thanks all, I shall take a look through them and see what fits in the case.

Hi matey, i've got one of these on a Athlon X2 3800 clocked up to 2.5ghz a core.

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775)

More than capable of handling the temperatures, and relatively quiet for nearly a tenner less.

It is rather bulky though and may have a few clearence issues in a small case with side fans.

Usually clears most motherboards as it stands proud of most components.

Thanks all, I've just bought one of these for £19 delivered if it's any good I will buy another one togo in my Quad Core 6600 server and then I can overclock it

Fitted the cooler today, what a nice peice of kit, seems very well made and extremly quiet when running.

Looks like I do still have a problem as the slowest it runs at is 2500rpm the same as the OEM fan so I think there must be another problem somewhere. Still it does run cooler and quieter so it a for the Artic CPU cooler and heatsink

Dont know about your motherboard but mines compatible with ITE Smartguardian, and i've got profiles set for different fan speeds for different temps.

Mines running at 1300rpm at 38 degrees C.

On my pc (q6600), I can set the actual fan speeds for different temps inside the bios. It maybe worth looking to see if you have simillar in yours. I have adjusted mine from standard, as it was far to noisy.

i've been doing some tinkering today, I've overclocker my 2.6ghz dual core to 2.8ghz and am running the folding client at 97% and doing lots of heavy movie rendering and the box has been sat with both cores on 100% for the last 5hours and the CPU temp hasn't gone above 57c and the CPU fan is around the 2k rpm. I've also got it so when the pc is under less load the fan does slow down.

I don't seem to be able to get the temp any lower at full load. Maybe I should in vest in a couple of fans for the case next to get some better airflow.

Another vote for the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7

Near silent in my rig!

How many case fans do you have Matt?

I've got 3 intake fans 2 x 80mm fans and a 92mm fan in the case side.

Then a 120mm fan for the exhaust along with the silent psu

How many case fans do you have Matt?

I've got 3 intake fans 2 x 80mm fans and a 92mm fan in the case side.

Then a 120mm fan for the exhaust along with the silent psu

lol

1 in the PSU and 1 on the CPU :eek:

Quite possible thats your reason for high cpu temps, i'd advise putting a 80mm fan in the front of the case and the rear.

Would advise to look at the silent types though, mine are quite audiable even at 7v!

Edited 25 March, 200917 yr by Browny_37

i recommend a scythe kama master fan controller

fits in a 5.25 bay and allows the fan to be completely turned off if required, plus led display of temps and fan speed

i am using it to control

120mm fan in cpu cooler (tuniq tower)

120mm fan blowing over hdd

140mm rear exhaust fan

140mm top blowhole fan

it works brilliantly and looks great, only downside is that the kids *could* turn off cpu fan completely (they have been warned.....) (plus it alarms if you do this, or have it set too low to spin up when powered on)

Quite possible thats your reason for high cpu temps, i'd advise putting a 80mm fan in the front of the case and the rear.

Would advise to look at the silent types though, mine are quite aduiable even at 7v!

If your case will take bigger fans fit 90-120mm rather than 80mm. They shift just as much or more air and are a lot quieter.

If you're stuck with 80mm you can get 'quiet' fans, fit a controller or you can get rubber gaskets to isolate the vibration from the fans.

I've got 3x80mm fans, a bit cpu cooler with the jet style fan and the cpu fan. It does howl a bit. Next 'puter will be quieter.

Thanks all. I think I'll just leave it as it is now. It works OK, very quick in fact and has only alarmed once but then it had been sat with both cores @100% for about 2days :)

I will get another couple of fans as soon as the wallet will allow but I'm guessing they're not going todo a great deal in this case as the front is solid plastic with no slats or vents in it.

Thanks all. I think I'll just leave it as it is now. It works OK, very quick in fact and has only alarmed once but then it had been sat with both cores @100% for about 2days :)

I will get another couple of fans as soon as the wallet will allow but I'm guessing they're not going todo a great deal in this case as the front is solid plastic with no slats or vents in it.

If you look at the base you will see air holes at the base of the front or on the sides. Just make sure the carpet doesn't block this and put a single fan behind the CPU in the case, sucking air out.

HTH

Thanks all. I think I'll just leave it as it is now. It works OK, very quick in fact and has only alarmed once but then it had been sat with both cores @100% for about 2days :)

I will get another couple of fans as soon as the wallet will allow but I'm guessing they're not going todo a great deal in this case as the front is solid plastic with no slats or vents in it.

I urge you to add an extractor fan as soon as possible. CPU temp is the least of your concerns here; there are also HDD and Mobo (Mosfet, capacitor, northbridge, etc) temps to consider as these components usually rely solely on case airflow (of which you seem to have very little, i.e. the PSUs fan) for cooling. I am assuming here that you have an actively cooled graphics card, otherwise add that to the list.

Even if I told you that one of these components HAD to fail, but you could choose which one, you’d be wise to select the CPU as this would be the easiest, and in your particular case cheapest, one to replace (no mobo transplants, no other components to fiddle with – i.e. old mem doesn’t work with new mobo – no data loss…)

Anyway, CPUs can take high temperatures, and the worse that can happen in most cases nowadays if a CPU overheats is for the PC to shut down. Officially your Pentium D 805 has a ceiling of 64.1C before automatic shutdown to protect the CPU is triggered, so even as is, with no case airflow and under heavy duty, you are still 7c away: Intel® Pentium® D Processor 805 - SL8ZH

Adding an extractor fan will lower your CPU temp by a bit, but your case temp by a lot, and this is why you should do it ASAP as it will prolong the life of you whole system, and even save you leccy money in the long run (generally PSUs become less efficient the warmer they get, and cooling down the case will cool down the PSU, which will then operate more efficiently - and quietly - in return).

Several years ago I measured a temp drop of 10c when I added an extractor fan to an overheating XP2000+ that was shutting down at 90c (it worked fine up to 89c). I did care at the time because CPUs were expensive, but today I’d actually be glad to see my E2160,which has been overclocked from 1.8 to 3.2, go up in smoke as this would be a great excuse for a quad core upgrade ; alas this is unlikely even with temps hitting 71c almost every day (ceiling according to intel is 73.2c) with some pretty decent, if not quite heavy duty, cooling.

Many cases can accommodate multiple sizes of fans at the rear, so check the mounting holes and go for the larger one that will fit. To improve airflow you can cut open the bit inside the fan mounting holes with a pair of sturdy wire cutters, and then use a fan guard costing pennies to protect fingers from moving fan blades. This is highly recommended where the perforations at the back of the case are too restrictive, cutting airflow and increasing noise.

If possible, make sure your AC7 is oriented to blow towards the rear so that the warm air goes directly to the extractor fan that you will add. Also note that intake fans are less effective overall than extractor fans, so go for the latter if it has to be one or the other.

Edited 25 March, 200917 yr by Ioannis

The 3 intake fans i've got blow infront of the cpu and the other one forces air across my hdd. Whilst having one at the front of the case too.

I know it's important to keep things cool but as the CPU temp has lowered i'm not so worried now, the case temp isn't all that high either, certainly not as high as the case temp on my server which has a Quad Core CPU running at 75%load over the 4 cores plus the 6HDD's that are also in that same Full ATX case, incidently this too only has the CPU fan and the PSU fan and has been running fine for the last 2 years with only 1 HDD failure in that time.

I know fans arent all that expensive but I have alot of other expenses going out at the moment so buying a few fans is the least of my worries now.

I've got lots of usefull links and info from this and will re-visit this thread when I'm able to spare the money to add some extra cooling.

Thanks for all you help

Well, I got fed up of the noise and bought myself some fans, I've now fitted x2 92mm fans, 1 at the front of the case and 1 at the rear of the case, CPU temp has now dropped to 43c and fan speeds are now down to 1500rpm instead of an indicated 3k rpm and thanks to the rubber fixing mounts there is little vibration noise from the extra fans.