Cool and quiet?

[theprobbka]

Hey y'all. I'm building a box for my folks, and they want something that is fast, while keeping cool & quiet. They say my Athlon XP 1700+ generates too much heat and noise. I was thinking along the lines of maybe a Duron 1200 to an Athlon XP 1500+. Mainly I want to keep from having to buy a second case fan--I think this would cut back significantly on the noise, and it would mean that the system would be generating less heat. What would you recommend?

The Probbka

 

[MoFunk]

I just built a system with a XP1500 and the fan is not any quieter! If they are that worried, maybe get them a 60-80mm fan adapter and a quiet 80mm fan. Then you may want to replace the PSU fan depending on how loud that is.

 

[gaidin123]

The easiest solution to a quieter case is to use quiet, low RPM fans and to remove unecessary fans. I'd suggest getting the Alpha PAL8045 heatsink and pair it with a Panaflo L1A 80mm fan (that heatsink requires an 80mm fan). Either buy a quiet power supply or replace the PSU fan with a Panaflo. Get a motherboard that doesn't have a northbridge fan or buy a replacement northbridge heatsink like the Zalman Northbridge Heatsink. Replace the front intake case fan with a quiet Panaflo.

If the hard drive is a source of objectionable noise you have 2 options: buy a new and quieter drive like the Seagate Baracuda IVs with the special fluid bearings or dump their current hard drive into a SilentDrive enclosure.

If you do all those things above then your parents' PC will probably almost as quiet as you can get without resorting to more drastic mods and sound dampening material (which can't help temps inside the case). I just did all of the above (well I've had a silentdrive for most of a year) and my PC is very quiet.

A good, cheap source for Panaflo L1As is BGMicro. If you don't want to go the Panaflo route I've heard excellent things about the Enermax adjustable 80mm case fans though I believe they do cost more than the Panaflos. The L1As are under $3 apiece. I got them for $2 apiece but I think they've slightly raised the price.

Good luck!

Gaidin

 

[benhar]

I second the Alpha PAL8045 / Panaflo recommendation. I've got that on my 1.4 Thunderbird, plus all four case fans are Panaflos, and I could barely hear my computer running when I had my fanless video card.

 

[J3anyus]

<< I second the Alpha PAL8045 / Panaflo recommendation. I've got that on my 1.4 Thunderbird, plus all four case fans are Panaflos, and I could barely hear my computer running when I had my fanless video card. >>



Yep, I run an Alpha PAL8045 with a quiet fan (I use an Adda, not a Panaflo), and my rig is very quiet. You can have quite a few fans, just use quiet ones.