3 HSF Ideas... Good or Bad???

[Village0idiot]

I am looking for HSFs that are nice and quiet (in comparison), are relatively inexpensive, and can still keep my 1.2 Tbird cool even in lightly overclocked situations. First of all, is this to much to ask of an HSF? If not, could possible solutions be these:

GlobalWin Fop-32 with a YS Tech 60mm 27 CFM Fan.

ThermalTake Volcano II with and Everflow 60mm 30CFM Fan.

Tai Sol CGK-742092 with a slim line Delta Fan.

(From plycon.com if you want to check it out.)

Can these fans effectively cool my system? Are there better HSFs that fit my criteria? Or should I settle for loud an expensive fans to be safe?

Any feedback you guys can give me at all would be much appreciated.

[Xayd]

The Thermaltake heatsinks are notoriously poor performers, the FOP32-1 is a great bang for the buck, that'd be my first choice from your list.

I've never personally used the Taisol heatsinks.

Xayd

[Toaster]

Hi folks,
Always keep in mind the following:
1. If your system is poorly ventilated, the best HSF will only work so well.
2. Intake air vents "should" be 2x the exhaust fan size.
3. Route cables away from heat sources while keeping air flow at maximum.
4. Ambient air temps exceeding 125 degrees causes excessive wear on moving parts and hampers cooling tremendously.
5. Air "should" be "changed" via a cooling solution (vents, fans, etc) about 10 times per/min. (this figure keeps noise down and cooling high)
6. Very high fan speeds increase cooling but are VERY noisey.
7. A standard 4" fan, running at 2500RPM with 8" of intake area exhausts air about 15x/min. This would be a "low noise" solution.
8. A non-standard 6" fan, mounted on the intake side of the case (front in my case) and a 4" exhaust fan coupled with the 4" power supply fan exhausts about 22x/min and is VERY quiet. Fan speed is 2200RPM (12volt, 6")
Heat sink temps using "the monster" heatsink assembly (home made) is 5 degrees above ambient. (75 ambient, 80 system/CPU temp) No fan on the HSF.
9. Be very sure of your system vents. Many times, these vents are along the extreme lower edge and can be blocked by sitting the system on a short shag rug.
"Kicking" the front of the system up slightly greatly increases air flow.
10. System CPU temps should be kept below 135 degrees and strive for temps below 120 degrees.

*all temps are F.
*all fans are 12volt standard PC/power.

[audiyoda]

I'll agree with EVERYTHING Toaster said. But ot that let me add that I am a huge fan of Step-Termodynamics fans. Kept my 1Gig Athlon only 1.25 degrees warmer while it was OC'ed to 1.4Gig -- and very quiet.

Just my opinion.

-Craig

[jharris]

I'm also a big fan of STEP HSF combos. My current system is running at 25% OC (AMD 1 GHz @ 1250 MHz) and it's at 93F idle/82F ambient and around 100F at full load. That being said, my system is pretty loud. My CPU fan is currently turning around 6500 rpm. I can slow it down to reduce noise, but there are myriad fans within the system I can't control (except by changing the supply voltage). I have a frozen CPU case with 2 side-mounted side fans blowing onto the MB and a blowhole fan in the top of the case. Then, there are the two fans (one intake and one exhaust) built into the PS, one intake down low in the front, and one exhaust right below the PS.

My question is, can I quiet down a system with a lot of fans? I want to build a quiet rig (AMD 1.4 GHz and EPoX DDR MB) w/o OCing, and I want to add a number of fans like with my current system. I'm nervous without the addition air cooling; however, I don't want to go to alternative cooling techniques.

Thanks.

[Toaster]

Hello folks,
"Harris", It sounds as though you went overboard. Try killing some of the fans and check temps. Remember that fans create the most "noise" on the intake side.
On most cases, the intake area directly in front of the fan is often numerous holes instead of a simple "hole" the size of the fan. Were this a simple opening instead of "several smaller holes", the fan would be far more effective and GREATLY reduce noise.
Here is an experiment to demonstrate my point:
Power up any typical fan in a fashion that allows you to hold the fan in your hands whilst it is running. (use care to avoid injury)
With one hand, move your hand closer to the "intake" or "induction" side of the fan. As you come closer, noise increases and flow reduces.
Now do the reverse. Move your hand closer to the exhaust side of the fan. In this, the fan increases somewhat but airflow remains the same until you cover the can almost entirely. So, the fan is far more efficient "blowing" then "sucking". The bottom line is this: Keep the induction side of the fan clear. You may need to make some case mods but noise will be greatly reduced.
From here, reduce the number of fans or reduce thier voltages.
You should easily be able to reduce noise by 50% or more.
The experiment really gives you an idea of "fan function" and is VERY informative.

[Cricket]

I cut away the drilled out vent hole area from my case (where the front intake fan is located) with a Dremel Tool and just left a nice big round hole for the 92 mm fan instead. The noise level decreased noticeably. I can still hear the CPU heatsink fan (retail Intel on a PII 400 Mhz), but it's not annoying.

Cricket

[WJWheels]

I've got 2 computers running all the time... my 'server' in an Antec case with 4 80mm case fans plus the ps fan and cak38/Delta hsf. My 'working' computer, dual boot slot 1 P3 has the step 3 fans on the cpu setup. Theres 4 more fans in this box for a total of 7 altogether. Noisy?? no way - I merely turn up the volume on my background music.

[morriswindgate]

On of the biggest contributors to high temps is cable obstructing air flow.
After you have connected all the power connectors, bundle the the cables with cable ties and route the to keep the canter air flow path as open as possible. Go with rounded IDE Cables and bundle these also, or use bobbie pins and electrical tape to stack/route the ribbon type cables on top of each other and out of air flow path as much as possible.
Stay away from cheap power supplys, and select a power supply that has a bottom intake vent if possible. Add at least an extra exhaust fan to the case.

[Smoke24]

I have eight fans running in my case currently one of them is the 6800 RPM 60 MM Delta on a Thermo Engine HS and five other 80 MM Sunnon fans,three case fans and a dual fan card cooler, one more 60 MM YS Tech in the rear of the case and the small 40 MM on the video chip. All of this in a 6890 Addtronics case. It is not as loud as you might think but you can hear it not to the point of distaction though. If you play music on the computer at a moderate volume you don't even hear the fans. You might check the prices at www.sidewindercomputers.com as they seem to have very good prices on cooling products. They are also prompt at shipping and only charge a small shipping fee.